Infusion of bone marrow cells may reduce second heart attack risk
Washington, Dec 9 (ANI): In a new study, researchers found that cells from heart attack survivors’ own bone marrow reduced the risk of death or another heart attack when infused into the affected artery after successful stent placement.
Benefits found early in the trial could last for at least two years, researchers said.
“More research is needed, but this gives us a hint of what might be possible with this new treatment – prevention of another heart attack and of rehospitalization for heart failure, both life-threatening complications,” said Birgit Assmus, first author of the study and assistant professor of cardiology at J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.
The researchers conducted the study at 17 centers in Germany and Switzerland.
They randomized 101 heart attack survivors to receive a solution including progenitor cells from their own bone marrow. The other 103 patients received a placebo solution.
Progenitor cells, like stem cells, are early-stage cells. They are still able to differentiate into various types of certain adult cells – but not exactly like a cellular “blank slate” seen with stem cells. Rather, progenitor cells are more specific than stem cells and are further along in the process towards forming the type of adult cell they will become.
The researchers infused cells or placebo into the artery that triggered patients’ heart attacks three to seven days after undergoing reperfusion therapy.
“The goal of this study was to prevent heart failure by enhancing new vessel growth and perfusion of the surviving tissue,” Assmus said.
The results of the study showed that at two years, no patients from the bone marrow cell group had suffered a heart attack while seven patients from the placebo group had – a statistically significant difference.
Compared with placebo patients, cell-infused patients were less likely to die, need new revascularizations, or be rehospitalized for heart failure.
“Large, randomized trials are urgently needed to assess the effects of progenitor-cell therapy in patients with heart attacks,” Assmus said.
The study has been reported in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Heart Failure. (ANI)
Related posts:
- Bone marrow cell transplants may benefit heart disease patients
- Bone marrow cells could evade immune system rejection
- Stem cells behind bone marrow cancer’s resistance to treatment
- Modifying immune system may reduce death-risk in heart failure patients
- Bone marrow can harbour HIV-infected cells
- Bone marrow nerve damage linked to blindness-causing diabetic complication
- Adult stem cells may mend broken hearts
- Anorexics have strikingly high fat levels within their bone marrow
- Scientists identify great-granddaddy of human blood cells
- Your own stem cells can help treat heart disease: Study
- Stem cell therapy holds promise for acute lung injury
- Calcium supplementation may raise heart attack risk for elderly women
- Oxygen-saturated blood can reduce heart muscle damage after an attack
- Prostate cancer patients on hormone therapy ‘at increased heart disease risk’
- Adult stem cells offer new treatment for fractures that fail to heal