Heart Valve Stem Cell Research

Discovery of cardiac stem cells.

Heart valve stem cell research.

Stem cells can now be used to correct heart and valve degeneration. Autologous biological heart valves. But this is still an extremely young scientific. Jones 69 first learned about the heart stem cell trial in a convenience store.

That s based partly on recent animal studies in which scientists at both institutions isolated stem cells from the injured animals hearts and infused them back into the hearts of those same animals. Scientists thought the heart didn t have its own stem cells until professor antonio beltrami at the university of udine in italy described a small population of stem cells in the heart in 2003. Considering my fascination with medical technology i recently came across an interesting video about the use of stem cells to create heart valve replacements for the treatment of valvular disorders including aortic stenosis and mitral regurgitation. In the past i have written several stories about stem cell use for heart valve.

That said i thought you might find this video very interesting. In addition the stem cell group did not report any adverse effects such as immune system reactions. Myocardial infarction is the leading cause of death worldwide. The stem cell patients also showed improved quality of life and day to day functioning.

He was buying diet soda when he saw a newspaper headline about the proposed research. People with valvular heart disease may require surgery to repair or replace the damaged heart valve. In a study published last february in the lancet researchers treated 17 heart attack patients with an infusion of stem cells taken from their own hearts. The stem cells formed new heart muscle and blood vessel cells.

Clinical trials using these improved methods are currently targeted to begin around 2020. Currently medical pharmaceutical and device based therapies only delay the progression of the disease and do not actually repair the heart. In fact says brinker the new cells have a pre determined cardiac fate. A new treatment using stem cells which have the potential to grow into a variety of heart cell types could potentially repair and regenerate damaged heart tissue.

As you can see the use of stem cells to treat heart patients shows great promise. While many mechanical and biological replacement options exist today each has its drawbacks. Helping the heart regenerate itself after damage is a dream of cardiovascular researchers.