Skin cells turned into healthy heart muscle cells (BBC) British Broadcasting Company) By Emily Selvadurai Health reporter, BBC News online 23 May 2012 Last updated at 01:55 GMT)
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Scientist say they have managed to turn patients´ own skin cells into
healthy heart muscle in the lab.
Ultimately they hope this stem cell therapy could be used to treat
heart failure patients.
As the transplanted cells are from the individual patient this could
avoid the problem of tissue rejection, they told the European Heart
Early tests in animals proved promising but the experimental
treatment is still years from being used in people.
Experts have increasingly been using stem cells to treat a variety of
heart problems and other conditions like diabetes, Parkinsons disease
Stem cells are important because they have the ability to become
different cell types, and scientists are working on developing ways
to get them to repair or regenerate damaged organs or tissues.
´New and exciting´
More than 750,000 people in the UK have heart failure.
It means the heart is not pumping blood around the body as well as it
Researchers are looking at ways of fixing the damaged heart muscle.
In the latest study, the team in Israel took skin cells from two men
with heart failure and mixed the cells up with a cocktail of genes
and chemicals in the lab to create the stem cell treatment.
The cells that they created were identical to healthy heart muscle
cells. When these beating cells were transplanted into a rat, they
started to make connections with the surrounding heart tissue.
Lead researcher Professor Lior Gepstein, said: "What is new and
exciting about our research is that we have shown that it´s possible
to take skin cells from an elderly patient with advanced heart
failure and end up with his own beating cells in a laboratory dish
that are healthy and young - the equivalent to the stage of his heart
cells when just born."
The researchers say more work is needed before they can begin trials
Dr Mike Knapton of the British Heart Foundation, said: "This is a
very promising area of study.
"However, we still have a way to go before these findings could be
applied to the clinic." (© BBC MMXII 05/23/12)
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