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Stem Cell Study Launched for Heart Repair
A new study at Johns Hopkins aims to test the safety of injecting adult stem cells after a heart attack. This is believed to be the first clinical trial in the United States in which adult mesenchymal stem cells are being used to repair muscle damaged by heart attack. The treatment approach is aimed at repairing damage that can leave dead portions of heart tissue. Previous research in animals has indicated that the injection of adult stem cells into the heart muscle can restore the heart to its original condition within two months.
In Nov. 2004, Hopkins researchers showed that only 25 percent of dead scar tissue remained following treatment with adult stem cells. Overall, the injection of adult stem cells produced a healthy heart tissue. The subjects of this study include 48 adults who had their first heart attack within ten days of trial enrollment. It is a double bind study, meaning neither researchers nor patients will know who received the stem cell treatment until the end of the study.
Patients will be assigned randomly to one of four groups. Each group will consist of 12 patients, each receiving either an injection of adult stem cells or a placebo. Three groups will receive different preset doses of stem cell therapy, while the last group will receive a placebo. Participants will be monitored for two years in order to determine whether the injections are safe and whether they produce any side effects.
Researchers predict that the adult stem cells will move to and repair the damaged areas of the heart muscle, following injection. The adult bone marrow stem cells will do this by responding to the chemical signals that are released by the heart after a heart attack. The adult stem cells to be used in this study are not from the patients. Mesenchymal stem cells are being used in this clinical trial. These stems cell give rise various cell types, including bone, cartilage, fat and muscle.
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