Stem cell therapy used to regenerate injured tissue in the heart restores synchronous pumping, shows research published today [1 September] in The Journal of Physiology. The study proposes a novel strategy of ‘biological resynchronisation’ in which stem cells repair heart muscle damage to reestablish correct cardiac motion.
Heart attacks limit local oxygen, which can kill areas of cardiac tissue – called ‘infarcted’ areas – and also leave scarring. This damage leads to a lack of synchrony in the heart beat motion.
Current therapies use pacing devices, but these require healthy tissue for optimal outcome, meaning a third of patients do not respond well to this treatment. However, this new approach discovered by a team at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, USA overcomes this limitation as stem cells actually form functional cardiac tissue and reconstruct heart muscle.
Professor Andre Terzic, who led the study, explains the importance of this potential new therapy: “Heart chambers must beat in synchrony to ensure proper pumping performance. Damage to the heart can generate inconsistent wall motion, leading to life-threatening organ failure.
“The heart is vulnerable to injury due to a limited capacity for self-repair. Current therapies are unable to repair damaged cardiac tissue. This proof-of-principle study provides evidence that a stem cell-based regenerative intervention may prove effective in synchronizing failing hearts, extending the reach of currently available therapies.”
Doctor Satsuki Yamada, first author of the study, further explains how the research was carried out: “Stem cells, with a capacity of generating new heart muscle, were engineered from ordinary tissue. These engineered stem cells were injected into damaged hearts of mice. The impact on cardiac resynchronization was documented using high-resolution imaging.”
The observed benefit, in the absence of adverse effects, will need to be validated in additional pre-clinical studies prior to clinical translation.
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Regeneration of damaged heart tissue synchronizes its motion
Left: Motion in healthy heart
Middle: Heart attack affects cardiac motion (blue area), which leads to organ failure
Right: Delivered into damaged heart muscle, stem cell therapy resynchronizes heart contractions (yellow area)
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Notes for editors
1. Full paper: Yamada S, Nelson T, Kane G, Martinez-Fernandez A, Crespo-Diaz R, Ikeda Y, Terzic C and Terzic A (2013). iPS Cell Intervention Rescues Wall Motion Disparity Achieving Biological Cardiac Resynchronization Post-Infarction. Journal of Physiology 591 (17), 4335-4349. Available at: http://jp.physoc.org/content/591/17/4335.abstract
2. The Journal of Physiology publishes advances in physiology which increase our understanding of how our bodies function in health and disease. http://.jp.physoc.org
3. The Physiological Society brings together over 3000 scientists from over 60 countries. The Society promotes physiology with the public and parliament. It supports physiologists by organising world-class conferences, offering grants and publishing the latest developments in the field. www.physoc.org
Contacts
The Journal of Physiology, UK
Lucy Holmes, Media & Communications Officer, The Physiological Society
(0044) 020 7269 5727; pressoffice@physoc.org
Mayo Clinic, USA
Duska Anastasijevic, Media Relations
(001) 507 284 5005; newsbureau@mayo.edu
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