Adult Stem Cell Research: Hope for Healing Hearts

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Adults Have Stem Cells?

HHL: Adults have stem cells? I thought stem cells came from embryos.

HARE: In the past four years, doctors have learned that we all have stem cells. In adults, stem cells are found throughout the body; an extremely abundant source is bone marrow. Using needle aspiration, cells can be removed from the marrow, most often from the hip bone where they’re more accessible and plentiful. The cells then are encouraged to multiply in labs before being returned to the body.

Animal studies show such stem cells can convert into heart and vascular cells, which can be used to strengthen weakened hearts and improve sluggish pumping power.

Results in humans are mixed.

• One study, from the University of Finland, showed “significant improvement” of heart-pumping action six months after 80 patients had bone stem cells injected into their hearts.
• In a study at the University of Leicester in England, the health of 63 heart-attack survivors failed to improve despite the hip bone stem cells injected into their heart muscles or blood vessels.
• Researchers at the University of California-San Diego removed thigh muscle in 23 heart-failure patients. They spurred stem cells from that muscle to multiply in a lab until they reached 600 million cells. Those cells then were injected into the patient’s heart via a catheter. A year later, patients who received the injections were healthy, with improved heart pumping function and better life quality. Those who were treated traditionally fared worse on both counts.