Researchers find stem cell-activated mechanism to treat patients post heart-attack

A stem cell-activated healing mechanism has been uncovered by a team of researchers to treat the patients after a heart attack.

According to a new study by Mayo Clinic researchers which got published in NPJ Regenerative Medicine, human cardiopoietic cells zero in on damaged proteins to reverse complex changes caused by a heart attack.

Andre Terzic, MD, PhD, director of Mayo Clinic's Center for Regenerative Medicine and senior author of the study, says: "The extent of change caused by a heart attack is too great for the heart to repair itself or to prevent further damage from occurring."

"Notably, however, cardiopoietic stem cell therapy reversed, either fully or partially, two-thirds of these disease-induced changes, such that 85 percent of all cellular functional categories affected by disease responded favourably to treatment."

"The actual mode of action of stem cells in repairing a diseased organ has until now been poorly understood, limiting adoption in clinical care. This study sheds light on the most intimate, yet comprehensive, regenerative mechanisms paving a road map for responsible and increasingly informed stem cell application," adds Dr Terzic.

"The response of the diseased heart to cardiopoietic stem cell treatment revealed development and growth of new blood vessels, along with new heart tissue," adds Kent Arrell, PhD, a Mayo Clinic cardiovascular researcher and first author of the study.

Initially carried on a mouse model, the promising therapy approach is now being tested in advanced clinical trials in heart patients.