Stem Cells Used To Repair Damaged Heart Tissue
How do you get around that very ethical debate of using stem cells from embryonic tissue? Well, how about using your own. This application of stem cell transplants is currently being researched in diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. And we can now add damaged heart tissue to the list…
British scientists are to try out a new way to repair damage caused by heart attacks. By injecting patients’ damaged hearts with stem cells from their own bone marrow scientists hope to regenerate tissue.
Researchers are hoping that this pioneering project will put them one step closer to using stem cells to routinely treat damaged heart tissue.
“One in three people will die within two or three years and the remaining people will have a very poor quality of life,” said Dr Ascione. “Your exercise tolerance will be very poor, you will not to be able to enjoy your life. If this [experiment] works you will minimize this … the point of this trial is to do the bypass and try to repair the scar, to make it a viable muscle again.”
What a remarkable thought for post heart attack and cardiac patients. The future holds such promise. What do you think about using stem cells to treat diseased tissue? Are you for or against it? Does it matter to you where the stem cells are harvested from?
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POSTED IN: Heart Transplants, Hearty Blogging, Hearty Research
2 opinions for Stem Cells Used To Repair Damaged Heart Tissue
Experimental Medical Techniques: British doctor’s using stem cells to repair damaged heart tissue « Hearts, Valves and Ventricles
Jun 26, 2007 at 7:49 pm
[…] research is legal and regulated in Britain. In fact, according to a recent post in the health blog A Hearty Life, there is research currently being undertaken in Britain combining stem cells with treatments for […]
Prismkitty
Feb 14, 2008 at 1:13 am
It would be a wonderment for me and I would like to see more of this done for patients. I do however, doubt it will be allowed in USA because it might just cause less monies, doctors and etc.. for the powers that control our medical treatments. Anyway this , like so many other promised new treatments that never seem to show up will be touted as a breakthrough then slowly fade into obscurity, without ever coming to a clinic or hospital near you. ie.. What ever happened to the new tool that was suppose to cleanse the arteries? Worked on the same principle as the tool used to clean household drains, laughable as that sounds. My cardiologists told me it was 2-3 years down the road, yet nothing ever came of it. I will be surprised if anything ever comes of it. Just another paycheck for someone in research.
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