Austrailian cardiologists are conducting unique stem cell research to find new ways to treat heart disease. The study utilizes high purity stem cells, to be sampled from the patients own bone marrow, to repair and grow new heart tissues. This treatment will be a new alternative for heart failure patients who do not recover using standard management, such as surgery and medication. During an earlier phase of this study, now six-months-old, human cells were injected into heart attack surviving rats. The damages suffered by the rats were fully reversed and new blood vessels began growing in their hearts. The researchers plan to test the treatment on larger subjects, such as sheep, before moving on to clinical trials in humans. They estimate that if the study is a success, worldwide stem cell treatment will become available in 5 to 10 years.
