Stem cells can repair the heart

MILLIONS of people suffering from heart failure have been offered hope by a new technique in which damaged tissue is regenerated with stem cells.

Research shows for the first time that damage caused by heart attacks, which was previously thought to be permanent, can be reversed.

Severe heart failure is caused when a heart attack damages the muscles in the organ so that it can no longer pump blood efficiently around the body.

The British Heart Foundation says a third of people admitted to hospital with the condition die within a year.

But between 2012 and 2013, 11 seriously ill patients undergoing bypass surgery were given stem cell injections and went on to make astonishing recoveries. The patients, none of whom were expected to live for more than two years, are all alive after receiving implanted stem cells created by British regenerative medicine company Celixir. Doctors said the patients’ quality of life had also improved.

Larger trials are set to take place at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London later this year.

HEART attack victims who were not expected to live are now fit and healthy after scientists regenerated their hearts with stem cells in a trial that could help millions of people.

The research is the first to show that the scarring of heart muscle associated with a heart attack can be reversed, a feat doctors believed was impossible and which could eventually end the need for transplants.

Scarring of the heart stops the organ pumping blood effectively and can lead to further attacks and sudden death. But 11 seriously ill patients who underwent stem cell injections at the same time as bypass surgery have made an “astonishing” recovery.

The operations were conducted between November 2012 and September 2013, and none of the patients was expected to live longer than 24 months. But since undergoing stem cell therapy, all are still alive and are far more active than before.

The implanted stem cells were created by Celixir, a British regenerative medicine company co-founded by Nobel laureate Prof Sir Martin Evans, the first scientist in the world to culture embryonic stem cells from mice in a laboratory. Larger trials are planned at Royal Brompton Hospital in London.

Prof Stephen Westaby, a surgeon at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, carried out the operations with Greek specialists Kryiakos Anastasiadis and Polychronis Antonitsis of the General University Hospital of Thessaloniki.

“These were patients with stage three heart failure who were expected to die within about two years,” said Prof Westaby. “[These were] patients who were forced to sleep propped up in bed, who were always short of breath, who couldn’t put their shoes on because their ankles and feet were swollen.

“We took these cells and put them into patients and had the most astonishing results. Scarred heart muscle doesn’t really improve at all, so to see that happening was remarkable.” Severe heart failure is currently incurable and creates a shorter life expectancy than many cancers. It is most commonly caused by a heart attack when the heart muscles suffer irreparable damage and can no longer pump blood efficiently. Patients are often left unable to perform everyday activities such as walking up stairs.

About 900,000 people in Britain are living with heart failure. Figures from the British Heart Foundation showed 146,000 people were seen at hospital with the condition in 2014-15, a rise of 36 per cent since 2004-05. The BHF says a third of those taken to hospital each year die within 12 months.

Prof Westaby had previously operated on children with abnormalities of their coronary arteries who had had multiple heart attacks.

He found that the scarring in their heart muscle disappeared over time, probably due to stem cells that humans have as young children. But the same healing has never been found in adults.

Scientists believed injecting stem cells directly into the heart could achieve the same results in adults, but until now every attempt had been unsuccessful.

The BHF said further trials were needed to check that the improvements were not simply the result of successful bypass operations.