Bone Marrow Stem Cells Heal Hearts

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Heal Hearts

Researchers in Düsseldorf, Germany have shown that bone marrow stem cells transplanted into 18 patients with prior heart attacks had improvement in ventricular function and exercise capacity, and the heart muscle damage shrank. The study will appear in the November 1 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. A release is available from EurekAlert.

In the study, the scientists extracted bone marrow from the patients’ own hip bones and infused them into the coronary artery months or years after the heart attack occurred. Prior studies have shown that injection of stem cells into the heart shortly after a heart attack improves healing, but this was the first to try the procedure after large amounts of time had elapsed. Global left ventricular function increased by 15%, infarction wall movement velocity rose 57% (that essentially means that the heart was able to function better as a muscle), and the infarct size, or damaged area, decreased 30%.

With stem cells derived from the patients’ own hip bones, there is no risk of rejection by the body.

The study was a small group of only 18 patients with no control group or double-blinds, so it is not entirely conclusive. However, larger and more controlled trials are underway. Other physicians who were not involved in the study looked on the results as promising.

The more I hear about bone marrow stem cells and heart attacks, the better the news looks for people who have had heart attacks. The results of this study suggest that patients whose health is too poor to undergo a bone marrow harvesting and injection at the time of the cardiac arrest could still benefit from the procedure when they are healthier.