Stem cell hope for heart patients

Researchers at the US Baylor College of Medicine have found that stem cells taken from the bone marrow of adult mice are able to develop into blood vessel and cardiac cells when injected into the bloodstream of another adult mouse that had suffered a heart attack.

Dr Margaret Goodell said that this was part of the body's 'natural instinct to repair itself'. 'By letting the cells move into the bloodstream, we've shown that the transformation of the bone marrow stem cells into blood vessels and heart tissue is part of a naturally occurring process.'

The stem cells were extracted from the bone marrow of the mice and 'tagged' with a blue marker. They were then injected into the bone marrow of some mice which had been induced to have heart attacks and some which had not, and these mice were observed. When the hearts were later examined, 'tagged' cells were not found in the hearts of the healthy mice, but were present in the blood vessels and cardiac tissue of the other mice.

It is hoped that the treatment will lead to better treatments for heart patients, with the long term possibility of avoiding open heart surgery by injecting stem cells directly into the bloodstream.