Canada claims cardiac progress

Heart muscle can be reconstituted using stem cells

By John Duce

Scientists in Canada believe they have made a significant step forward in the future treatment of heart disease.

They have managed to get rats to grow completely new tissue inside their living hearts.

It is hoped that similar technology can ultimately be used in humans to repair damaged organs.

Stem cells occur in human embryos

The World Health Organisation estimates that 15 million people die each year from cardiovascular diseases which can cause heart attacks and strokes.

These are among the main causes of death in the developed world.

Heart disease kills muscle tissue, which cannot be regrown, and so treatment is often confined to major surgery such as transplants and bypass operations.

Human application

Now scientists at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal have taken special 'stem cells' from 20 rats' bone marrows, injected them into their hearts, and the cells have turned into new heart muscle.

The hope is that similar techniques may ultimately be used in humans so they can regrow damaged heart tissue.

The researchers concede that their work on rats is at an early stage, but they say that this use of bone marrow stem cells is extremely promising.

Doctors know that stem cells with the ability to grow into other forms of tissue can be found in human embryos, but there is a fierce ethical debate as to whether it is right to take them from days-old human eggs.

The Canadian research suggests that adult bone marrow cells could provide a useful alternative source.

The findings of the McGill University Health Centre team were presented at a meeting of the American Heart Association being held this week in New Orleans.