The team from the University of Hong Kong's department of medicine say the procedure -- which can be performed under local anesthetic in a day -- has helped relieve symptoms and rebuild muscle tissue damaged by heart attacks in nine patients. They claim their early success, outlined in the international medical journal The Lancet, provides the first human evidence that bone marrow stem-cell transplantation can regenerate damaged cells.

Heart disease is Hong Kong's No 2 killer, accounting for 20,000 admissions to hospital every year while resulting in about 3,300 deaths. If the patient survives, she/he usually suffers disabling symptoms because of tissue damage that affects blood flow to the heart. These include chest pain and breathlessness, which can result in poor quality of life.

The new procedure involves harvesting stem cells -- types of cells present in bone marrow capable of developing into different kinds of tissue and muscle -- from the patient and then transplanting them directly into the damaged heart tissue via a special catheter.

The researchers claim all the patients who took part in the study failed to respond to traditional methods and surgical procedures. After the stem cell transplant, all had strikingly improved blood flow to the heart and heart functions.

University associate professor Hung-Fat Tse said because the stem cells came from the patient's own marrow, there was no risk of rejection. Being a day-case procedure, it also avoided the risks of open-heart surgery.

"We have demonstrated that catheter-based technology percutaneous delivery of the patient's own bone-marrow stem-cells into the heart muscle for blood vessel regeneration is a safe and feasible procedure in coronary heart diseases not amenable to medical or interventional therapy," he said.

Further research involving more patients is ongoing. - Sapa-DPA

(From Independent Online)