UF researchers test stem cell therapy for heart patientsOctober 05, 2007GAINESVILLE, Fla. - University of Florida doctors on Wednesday (Oct. 3) treated their first patient enrolled in a new study designed to test whether injecting stem cells into the heart helps restore blood flow to the organ by prompting new blood vessels to grow. UF researchers plan to test the experimental therapy in people with severe coronary artery disease and daily chest pain who have not responded to traditional medications or surgical procedures designed to restore blood flow, such as angioplasty or bypass surgery. "The general idea is that by providing these cells of blood vessel origin, we hope to either generate new blood vessels from the growth of these implanted cells or stimulate the heart to regenerate new blood vessels from the cells that reside in it," said study investigator Carl J. Pepine, M.D., chief of cardiovascular medicine at UF's College of Medicine. "It's not completely clear whether it's the actual cell itself that would do this or whether it's just the milieu and the chemical signals that occur from the cells that would result in this."
Each year, nearly half a million Americans with heart disease experience severe chest pain because coronary arteries and the smaller vessels that supply oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle become narrowed or blocked by plaque deposits or clots. These blockages can trigger mini-heart attacks that, while too small to be noticed as they occur, over time irreversibly damage the heart - leading to disability, progressive heart failure or even death. In the prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, known as the Autologous Cellular Therapy CD34-Chronic Myocardial Ischemia Trial, or ACT34-CMI, UF researchers will study 15 Shands at UF medical center patients to determine whether a person's own stem cells can be used to effectively and safely treat chronic reductions in blood flow to the heart, improving symptoms and long-term outcomes. They also will evaluate whether participants report improved quality of life and exercise tolerance, and whether the heart functions better. Participants will undergo screening tests and then receive a series of injections of a protein that releases stem cells from the bone marrow into the bloodstream. The cells, known as CD34+ stem cells, help spur blood vessel growth and are harvested from the patient during a procedure called apheresis, said Chris Cogle, an assistant professor of medicine at the UF's College of Medicine Program in Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Participants will then be randomly assigned to receive one of two dosing levels of the cells, or a placebo. "Physicians will use a catheter-based electrical mapping system to find muscle they think is still viable but not functioning," said R. David Anderson, an associate professor of medicine at UF and director of interventional cardiology. "The cells are injected into viable sites in the heart, which have poor blood flow, in the cardiac catheterization laboratory at Shands at UF medical center." Patients will be periodically evaluated by echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging over the course of a year after the procedure. Although to date study subjects have tolerated this procedure well, potential risks include infection, allergic reactions, bleeding, blood clots and damage to the heart or its vessels. UF is one of 20 research sites participating in the national study, which is evaluating a total of 150 patients and is sponsored by the Cellular Therapies business unit of Baxter Healthcare Corp. and led by principal investigator Douglas Losordo, M.D., of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. Baxter makes the cell-sorting equipment used to isolate the cells from the blood. Pending Food and Drug Administration approval, UF researchers, through the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute-funded Cardiovascular Cell Therapy Research Network, are gearing up to launch three other multicenter studies within the next several months that use other types of a patient's own stem cells. One trial focuses on patients who have had a heart attack within a week preceding study enrollment, another focuses on patients whose heart attack occurred within the preceding two to three weeks, and the third focuses on patients with congestive heart failure or chronic chest pain that has not responded to traditional treatment. These studies will use stem cells taken directly from the patients' bone marrow instead of stem cells isolated from the bloodstream, Pepine said, and will test whether various cell therapies can improve the heart's plumbing by helping to repair blood vessels or form new ones and strengthen the heart muscle to improve its ability to pump efficiently. Douglas E. Vaughan, M.D., chief of the division of cardiovascular medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said the study is important and targets a challenging group of patients who need new options. "There's a lot of enthusiasm in the cardiovascular community about the potential of cell-based therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases," Vaughan said, "and there is increasing experience around the world in using bone marrow-derived stem cells in patients with cardiovascular disease. There is growing confidence this is going to be a safe form of therapy, but there are continuing questions about how effective it will be and what its impact will be in individual patients." University of Florida Science News and Science Current Events Tag Cloud This tag cloud is a visual representation of term frequencies of random science news topics with common terms grouped together and emphasized by their display size. Carbon Emissions Diatoms Antipsychotic Birth Defects Rheumatoid Arthritis Amygdala Fingerprints Tanning Aggressive Behavior Xmm-newton Fungus Lymph Nodes Particle Physics Electricity Biofilm Cell Growth Terrorism Cardiovascular Risk Iron Contraception Autism Twins Cell Division Telomeres Archaea
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Related Stem Cells Current Events and Stem Cells News Articles New clue into how brain stem cells develop into cells which repair damaged tissue The joint research, funded by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the UK MS Society as well as the National Institutes of Health and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, was conducted by scientists at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and University of Cambridge and was published today (01 July) in the journal Genes and Development. Blood stem cell growth factor reverses memory decline in mice A human growth factor that stimulates blood stem cells to proliferate in the bone marrow reverses memory impairment in mice genetically altered to develop Alzheimer's disease, researchers at the University of South Florida and James A. Haley Hospital found. Neural stem cell differentiation factor discovered Neural stem cells represent the cellular backup of our brain. These cells are capable of self-renewal to form new stem cells or differentiate into neurons, astrocytes or oligodendrocytes. Female human embryos adjust the balance of X chromosomes before implantation Dutch researchers have found the first evidence that a process of inactivating the X chromosome during embryo development and implantation, which was known to occur in mice but unknown in humans, does, in fact, take place in human female embryos prior to implantation in the womb. Early heart attack therapy with bone marrow extract improves cardiac function A UCSF study for the treatment of heart failure after heart attack found that the extract derived from bone marrow cells is as effective as therapy using bone marrow stem cells for improving cardiac function, decreasing the formation of scar tissue and improving cardiac pumping capacity after heart attack. Xie Lab uncovers molecular machinery related to stem cell fate The Stowers Institute's Xie Lab has revealed how the BAM protein affects germline stem cell differentiation and how it is involved in regulating the quality of stem cells through intercellular competition. June 25, 2009 A Trio of Signals Converge to Induce Liver and Pancreas Cell Development in the Embryo Understanding the molecular signals that guide early cells in the embryo to develop into different organs provides insight into ways that tissues regenerate and how stem cells can be used for new therapies. Effective pain treatment for cancer patients? Cancer patients often suffer from severe pain that cannot be effectively treated with conventional medication. MU scientists convert pigs' connective tissue cells into stem cells For years, proponents have touted the benefits of embryonic stem cell research, but the potential therapies still face hurdles. Human term placenta a new abundant source of hematopoietic cells Investigators at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, Oakland, California found a way to obtain large numbers of hematopoietic stem cell from human term placenta. More Stem Cells Current Events and Stem Cells News Articles |
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