Medical breakthrough: Trial shows stem-cell patches can treat heart failure
What's the story
A revolutionary clinical trial has shown stem cell-derived muscle patches can be used to treat heart failure. The procedure was successfully conducted on a 46-year-old woman, who had experienced a heart attack in 2016 and later developed heart failure. The operation included implanting 10 patches, each with 400 million cells, on her heart's surface. This stabilized her condition for three months until she could get a heart transplant.
Post-operative observations
Stem-cell patches form blood vessels, stabilize heart
Post-operative examination of the patient's old heart revealed that the implanted muscle patches had not only stayed in place but also formed blood vessels. The findings were published in Nature, along with earlier studies that tested muscle patches with 40 million to 200 million cells each on rhesus macaques. The successful trial marks a major advancement in cardiac repair using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
Potential impact
Potential solution for heart transplant shortage
The stem cell-derived muscle patch treatment isn't meant to replace full transplants, but to help patients with advanced heart failure waiting for donor hearts. "Less than 1% of the patients in need are heart transplanted," study co-author Wolfram-Hubertus Zimmermann, a pharmacologist at University Medical Center Gottingen, said. This approach "is offering another treatment to patients that are presently under palliative care," he added.
Procedure details
Minimally invasive procedure for heart failure
Led by Zimmermann, the research team engineered iPSCs to develop into heart muscle and connective tissue. They then combined these cells with a collagen gel to create patches. The team also devised a minimally invasive method to place these patches on the heart's surface. "The graft is basically outside of the heart," explained Jianyi Zhang, a bioengineering specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Ongoing trials
Future plans for stem-cell patch treatment
The researchers have already implanted similar muscle patches into 15 patients and plan to include more participants in their trials. This innovative treatment could potentially benefit the estimated 60 million people worldwide living with heart failure. More than half of these individuals who enter severe heart failure die within a year due to a lack of donor hearts. Additionally, artificial pumping devices are not accessible to all due to their high cost.