Sunday, May 18, 2014

Stem cell therapy regenerates heart muscle damaged from heart attacks in primates

Ronak Shah

No specific author given, but is from University of Washington

Published April 30, 2014

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140430133056.htm

Summary:

Dr. Charles Murray at University of Washington led a research team to conduct an experiment: Can human embryonic stem cells from muscle cells regenerate non-human primate hearts? To perform the experiments they preformed controlled myocardial infarctions in a type of old world monkey called a Macaque. The researchers blocked the coronary artery for 90 minutes to simulate the heart attack, because in humans, heart attacks most often occur from a block in the coronary artery. 2 weeks after the myocardial infarctions, researchers injected human embryonic heart cells into the infarcted (all monkeys were put on immunosuppressives to stop the rejection of the cells). The researchers found over the next weeks, the stem cells infiltrated the damaged tissue, then matured into muscle fibers, and then began to work in the monkey hearts. After three months, they were fully integrated. The cells regenerated 40% of the damaged heart tissue. Researchers say they now the scale and procedure for possibly trying this on humans, and may be able to come up with a new procedure. The most common complications were arrhythmias, a few weeks after the transplant, but these subsided after the electric signal became more stable and the arryhthimias subsided so researchers are very optimistic.

Connection:

This clearly connects to our studies in the circulatory system, stem cells, and the complications that can arrise in the two. We studied something called homeostasis, which is the bodies ability to maintain a stable inner environment. Myocardial infarction's impair this ability by killing the heart tissue, making the part of the heart not pump so some of the crucial tasks of the circulatory system, such as delivering oxygenated and deoxygenated blood, and fighting infection are impaired. This article provides a possibility for actually treating the damaged heart tissue, rather than just unblocking the artery, using stem cells. We studied stem cells earlier in the year when we talked about how they could specialized as they mature and turn into different kinds of cells depending on the environment. The heart stem cells will provide a way to return homeostasis to first the heart, then the circulatory system, and then finally the entire body.