Herckleperckle
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11-20-2003
| Sunday, November 19, 2006 - 12:23 pm
Source: Ivanhoe.com Reported November 15, 2006 Stem Cells: New Hope on the Horizon By Julie Marks, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent CHICAGO (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- They're always a hot topic of discussion in medicine and politics. Stem cells hold the promise of helping the body repair itself. Now, researchers at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2006 in Chicago are reporting on three breakthrough ways to use a patient's own stem cells to help repair heart damage. Amniotic Stem Cells Swiss researchers say they've grown the first-ever "living" heart valves using stem cells that were harvested from amniotic fluid in an unborn child. Simon Hoerstrup, M.D., Ph.D., from the University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, says amniotic fluid appears to be a rich source of stem cells that can be used in prenatal prefabrication of heart valves with the ability to grow and function as healthy valves once a child is born. He and colleagues "seeded" tiny heart valve scaffolds and watched them grow into functioning valves that may one day be used to replace defective ones in newborns. This technique offers a possible way of "growing" replacement valves in infants with congenital valve defects. In his presentation, Dr. Hoerstrup said about 1 percent of infants are born with these defects. He concluded, "This potential therapy may open a whole new treatment option in congenital heart valve disease." Fat Stem Cells It may sound odd, but researchers are experimenting with isolating and growing stem cells from fat. Paul J. DiMuzio, M.D., from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, says one problem with using stem cells from bone marrow or blood is that the amount of cells decreases as the patient ages. That's why he and his colleagues wanted to know if the same would happen if cells were taken from fat. The researchers studied 49 heart disease patients. They extracted about 15 grams of fat by performing liposuction on the patients' abdominal walls. They found as patients got older, there was no significant difference in the number of stem cells found in the fat. Patients with diabetes, however, had decreased amounts of stem cells in their fat. Dr. DiMuzio says the stem cell isolation was equally fruitful in patients older than 70 as it was for younger patients. He concluded, "This study suggests that fat may be a viable source of stem cells for use in patients with cardiovascular disease." Human and Animal Stem Cells Discovering a source of "universal donor" stem cells that would not trigger immune rejection is, perhaps, the Holy Grail of stem cell research. Now, Canadian scientists may have found such a source. Ray C .J. Chiu, M.D., Ph.D., from McGill University Health Center and colleagues infused human bone marrow stromal stem cells into rats with induced heart attacks. They found the stem cells appeared to be uniquely immune tolerant in both laboratory cell cultures and cross-species transplant experiments. The stem cells survived in the rats without triggering an immune response, which would indicate rejection. Within eight weeks, the animals experienced significant improvements in heart function. Researchers say this study suggests stromal stem cells might serve as "universal donor" cells for heart repairs in humans. SOURCE: Julie Marks at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2006 in Chicago, Nov. 12-15, 2006
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