Human Trials: World's First Adult Stem Cells from Heart Tissue to Repair Heart |
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Editors published 2/11/2009 3:00:00 PM
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The world's first FDA-approved clinical trial using adult stem cells derived from heart tissue to treat heart disease will be conducted by a team of University of Louisville doctors at Jewish Hospital.
Bypass patients will have some tissue removed and sent to a lab to grow these cells. A few months later, the cells will be injected into a leg artery to travel to the heart.
The patients will be evaluated over the course of at least a year for heart function and blood flow. The heart's overall size and the size of the scar tissue will be measured.
"Our hope is that the cardiac stem cells will help the heart tissue regenerate, reducing the size of the patient's scar tissue and improving heart function," said study leader Roberto Bolli, Jewish Hospital Heart and Lung Institute Distinguished Chair in Cardiology.
All patients enrolling in the clinical trial will receive the cardiac stem cell therapy, since this is a phase one clinical trial designed to test the treatment's safety and feasibility.
Bolli, who is also chief of the Division of Cardiology and director of UofL's Institute for Molecular Cardiology, is collaborating with a number of leaders in the field of cardiovascular and stem cell medicine for this clinical trial, including Piero Anversa, of Harvard University and Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston and Mark Slaughter, Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at UofL.
According to Louisville's Business First article 2/9/2009
Doctors explain heart stem cell trial:
Animals tested for the procedure showed a five to 10 percent improvement in injection fracture, or the amount of blood the heart is pumping, said Bolli, who also serves as chief of the Division of Cardiology and director of the Institute for Molecular Cardiology at U of L.
Similar results in humans would constitute progress, he said.
Physicians believe stem cells isolated from cardiac tissue, rather than other parts of the body, are better suited to treat heart disease patients, Bolli said.
Because Jewish Hospital is providing the venue and technology for the trial, any additional costs for the trial would be less than $50,000, Bolli said.
It will be interesting to see if the stem cells land in the right spot in the heart. An alternative would be to inject the cells directly into the heart.
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