Stem cells help recover heart damage
10 November 2004
by Richard
Conan-Davies
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Adult stem cells from a pig's bone marrow have been implanted into it's damaged heart restoring it's function to normal. Led by Dr. Joshua Hare of the Johns Hopkins University, USA, the study compared 14 pigs some of which had the stem cells injected carefully into their hearts and other with nothing. Those pigs with the stem cells implanted showed a full recovery within 2 months but those pigs with the placebo suffered further heart damage. Dr. Josuhua Hare explained further to the Johns Hopkins University that " Among its many benefits are that adult stem cells are readily available, meaning they can be extracted from the patient, no donor is required, and the cells can be simply reproduced if more are needed. In our animal experiment, the treatment regimen was relatively simple, requiring only injection to the damaged tissue. The therapy was extremely effective, allowing for almost complete recovery, with no serious complications, such as immunosuppression, which is a problem in organ transplantation. Now, we need to see how it works in people." |
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