Could THIS be the end of heart damage? Scientists find cells grown from skin help to ‘repair the organ’
- New therapy turns specialised cells, such as skin, back into a neutral state
- This allows the induced pluripotent stem cells to be turned into heart ones
- In tests on monkeys, they were found to restore some heart damage
Stephen Matthews For Mailonline
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Heart damage could be repaired in the future through a new form of stem cell therapy, scientists believe.
The treatment turns specialised cells – such as skin – back into a neutral state so they can develop into heart ones.
The so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) are chosen from a donor genetically similar to the recipient.
Previous studies have found embryonic stem cells help to treat severe heart failure.
But in new tests on monkeys, the iPSC cells were found to restore some heart damage in five macaques, a study found.
Stem cells grown from one monkey’s skin revitalised the damaged hearts of five macaques, researchers found
Researchers from Shinshu University, Japan, chose a molecule that was a match in both the donor and the recipients immune system.
This was to stop the body’s defence system from identifying and reacting to the intruder cells.
They also gave the monkeys mild immunosuppressant drugs, and monitored them for 12 weeks.
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Heart function was improved by the iPSC cells and they weren’t rejected by the recipient.
However, there were some problems which caused an irregular heartbeat.
Lead researcher Yuji Shiba told AFP: ‘We still have some hurdles, including the risk of tumour formation, arrhythmias, cost, etc.’
The treatment turns specialised cells – such as skin – back into a neutral state so they can develop into heart ones
But he was confident that iPSC heart cells will be tested in human trials ‘in a few years’.
They say it was the first study to use iPSCs to fix heart damage, as cells usually originate from embryo’s or the recipients themselves.
Before this technique emerged, stem cells were controversially harvested from human embryos.
iPSC cells have long been touted as a promising source for heart repair but were often disregarded
Growing them from the patient’s own cells was considered time-consuming, laborious and costly.
While heart cells grown from another person may be rejected as foreign by the recipient’s immune system, researchers say.
The study was published in the journal Nature.
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