Fixing The Heart With Stem Cells

(CBS)  In a heart attack, the blood supply to part of the heart is shut off by a clot in a clogged artery - causing scarring of the heart muscle, which reduces the ability of the heart to pump.

The best that doctors have been able to do is to promptly open up the clogged artery and limit the damage with drugs.

But one day, there may be a way to get that damaged heart to grow its own brand-new muscle tissue. How? By using the patient's own cardiac stem cells.

This week doctors in Los Angeles have given a heart attack patient an infusion of stem cells grown from his own heart muscle.

It's a first, as CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports.

It was mid-May when 39-year-old Ken Milles was blindsided by a serious heart attack - and the doctor's bad news.

Milles said, "When he told me that there was permanent damage and that the duration of my life was reduced - that freaked me out."

Especially since the construction company employee has a wife and two teen-aged boys.

So he volunteered be one of 24 recent heart attack patients in a cutting-edge clinical trial at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute - becoming the first person ever to get an infusion of his own heart stem cells.

"We seek to actually reverse the injury that has been caused by the heart attack, by re-growing new heart muscle to at least partially replace the scar that's formed," says Dr. Eduardo Marban of Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute.

Doctors are using stem cells, the body's master cells, because they can transform into different kinds of tissue.

Marban says, "These cells that we're putting in come from the heart itself, and are predestined to generate heart muscle and blood vessels."

Other types of stem cells, like bone marrow, have been studied for heart repair, but with mixed results. Animal studies indicate heart stem cells do a better job. The problem is: the heart has so few stem cells that researchers have to grow more.

Using local anesthesia, doctors first send a catheter with little pincers to snip out bits of healthy heart tissue. They're sent to the laboratory where they're coaxed to manufacture as many as 25,000,000 stem cells.

In a trailblazing procedure new cells grow spontaneously from the specimens eventually forming into clusters called "cardio-spheres" that can even start beating in the dish. In 4 to 6 weeks, there are millions of stem cells.

A few days ago, doctors went back up an artery to deposit Ken Milles's own laboratory-grown stem and support cells into the damaged area of his heart -- hoping it'll repair itself and pump more blood.

"If this works, it's gonna help so many people. It's gonna change everything," said Milles.

In 6 months, doctors will know if Ken's heart has begun to repair itself. Clinical trials should be completed in three to four years.



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For More about Cedars-Sinai, Click here

[stemcellblogger]

HEART DISEASE TREATMENT with STEM CELLS: http://repairstemcell.wordpress.com/heart-disease-treatment/

[webexperts]

wow..!! That?s really amazing.. Recreating your own heart would be a dream for people like us who are facing a heart problem. And reading this post was like seeing dream come true. This will bring a new life to those who are deadly suffering from heart diseases. I was found to be having a calcium deposit in my coronary arteries. I need to have my advance diagnostic scans due reassure whether something really deadly is waiting for me. Though it was some dreadful going on in my life, but I never felt any kind of discomfort in Elitehealth.com advanced diagnostic facility. http://www.elitehealth.com/advanced_diagnostic_testing.php. They were having some of the latest diagnostic equipments and non invasive techniques which made me feel safe. Their medical office in Los Angeles was more than what I had expected with some latest diagnostic techniques which help makes earth a better place to live. The amount of damage that has already being done to my heart can be restored. This will give me a new meaning to my life.

[ibzjem]

We have to learn a little bit about adult stem cells and a big scary word - transdifferentiation. Adult stem cells, which exist in many tissues throughout your body, have specific jobs to perform for the human body to continue to function. Hematopoietic (blood) stem cells make all the red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets you need to as they are continuously lost or degenerating as part of their natural life span. Stem cells in your gut continuously replace the lining of your intestines as it wears down from the harsh process of breaking down food. There are stem cells that have been isolated from most tissues that function as a repair and maintenance pool of cells to keep our organs functional. Not all organs have a ready pool of stem cells, and most stem cell populations, with the notable exception of blood stem cells, are hard to harvest without risking injury to the host.

However, while these cells are great at doing their job, the issue with adult stem cell research is, can they do another stem cell's job? That is, instead of making just blood, could a hematopoietic stem cell make, say, an insulin secreting pancreatic cell? The answer, despite some initial promising results around 2001, is no. While hematopoietic stem cells may be able to make some other mesenchyme or connective tissue cells from the mesodermal germ layer, it doesn't appear that we can make such adult stem cells transdifferentiate - or make a type of cell from another embryonic germ layer. This ability is what is meant by totipotency. The ability to differentiate not just into one of the three major tissue types (mesoderm, ectoderm and endoderm), but all three of them. Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent.

[howardamin]

Check out http://billymayes.blogspot.com/ for his last interview it is sad

[John_Merritt]

Hey Samjia:

1.) First, I don't want to walk hand in hand with you, because guys like you scare me senseless because of your belief in that 'you are all that'. I have met guys like you throughout all the years i worked in healthcare and in the drive to 'become all things to themselves' have somehow lost or losing their way in being responsible in all things to all people. Everyone, not just the 'rich and chosen'. You and I both know what I am talking about.

2.) You sure use the word 'fear' alot in your message. Fear is not even in my vocabulary. I fear no man or no thing on this planet. So quit projecting your own beliefs on me. You see, I fear nothing because I 'believe' in God and the life hereafter. However you fear there is no God and there is nothing left for you. Hence you fear dying. I welcome it!

3.) Interferon and HIV drugs are meant to support and bolster the immune system.

4.) The moment we are born, we start dying slowly but surely. Ask any scientist (sans you) and they will tell you. Example: we start losing our baby fat or teeth (dying) and we start growing adult teeth and adipose.

5.) I have read many formularies and indications and contraindications regarding the benefits and adverse effects of medicines and drugs. The truth be known if more people would start reading the same, they would become more holistic in their approach to living; because these benefits of the pharmaceuticals can help but they also can damage beyond belief. You should know that, you are a physician.

6.) We are killing the very things that we will need to sustain life in the future. Like waterways, plant life and animal life, the air we breathe, and the support systems that we will need to take us into the future. Hence, I support stem cell research but I don't believe we can do it effectively in the time we need.

7.) The 'chicken before the egg' is not a statement of confusion. Once again you are projecting. It is a statement of fact that stem cell perfection cannot be done if we don't have life support systems to get us where we need to go. In your philosophy you want man to live forever, a noble goal, but when you have accomplished it; the planet will not be fit for any man, woman or child to live on. Hence the chicken before the egg analogy is perfect verbiage.

8.) I was trying to extend a hand in friendship by offering to sit down with you over a cup of java. I take it, you don't like coffee. So my invitation still stands, except we can drink tea if you want.

Good luck to you brother in your endeavors. I hope you find what you are looking for in this life. May God Bless you and your family and keep you safe from the harms of this world.

Your friend, John

[erasmus111]

by slownewsday_05 June 29, 2009 9:49 PM PDT

by erasmus111 June 30, 2009 12:19 AM PDT

Sooooo, I see you are using the "repy to comment" now. You like it? Doesn't it take more time? I mean the longer you post a comment there, you have to go all the way back up to the original comment to be able to click on the "reply to comment", right?


I just realized that it wasn't you that I had been talking to about this. : )

[erasmus111]

by slownewsday_05 June 29, 2009 9:49 PM PDT


Sooooo, I see you are using the "repy to comment" now. You like it? Doesn't it take more time? I mean the longer you post a comment there, you have to go all the way back up to the original comment to be able to click on the "reply to comment", right?

[madpostman]

I'm just wondering what could be done for severe arthritis of the shoulder, due to trauma. My last option is to have a shoulder replacement, which would involve plastic, of which, I'm not real fond of. I have 11 pins in my shoulder(anchor's really) to keep my shoulder stabilized. I have severe pain issues as a result of a ergonomic injury that resulted in me having not one, but, two operations on my shoulder, The last one repaired a torn bicep muscle as well. So, I have very little use of my left arm. Quite frankly, I'm tired of popping pills(narcotics) because of the permanent pain issues. And yeah, it does get depressing. Being in constant pain changes your whole outlook on life, your demeanor especially. I would be happy just to have my life back before I got injured and I'm going on 10 years now like this.

[rbstrcklnd]

by slownewsday_05

Get your facts straight. Bush allowed a limited number of embryonic stem cells for Federal funding. This story is about adult stem cells as are all the successful stories. No one has a problem with stem cell research. It's embryonic stem cells.

[barbara2c]

The problem with pointing fingers is that it really isn't accomplishing a thing. Millions of us with terminal diseases are dying in this country just like Farrah Fawcett. The FDA needs a complete overhaul and we need to be able to try any treatment that we want, including experimental stem cell treatment. Instead, we are being hung out to die while the FDA cozies up to Big Pharma and they try to figure out how to get a piece of our own stem cells. You can help make change by joining American Stem Cell Therapy Association (ASCTA)at www.safestemcells.org From that site you can find out how to contact the FDA and what the real issues are.
Barbara/Stem Cell Pioneers