Pioneering researchproject - marrow cells to regenerate heart
Stem cells from bone marrow injected into the heart will help to regenerate this muscle after myocardial infarction or cure chronic failure. Pioneering research work will be carried out next year by doctors in the Upper Silesian Cardiology Centre in Katowice.
The study is part of a larger research project, implemented by several
Polish centres, for innovative applications of stem cells in medicine.
The project won a PLN 45 million grant from the European Union.
Head of the 3rd Department of Cardiology, Silesian Medical University
Prof. Michal Tendera emphasised during a press conference in Katowice
that in this case scientists use and strengthen the natural mechanisms
of the human body.
"Myocardial infarction results in the
mobilization of a large number of systems in the human body, including
secretion of different types of cardiovascular cells from bone marrow,
which potentially can contribute to the regeneration of the heart. (...)
They can contribute to the reconstruction of the heart muscle and blood
vessels that provide myocardial blood supply. Spontaneous mechanism,
however, is insufficient to restore the losses that arise due to
myocardial infarction" - he said.
If a person suffers a heart
attack, affected part of the heart attack dies. Muscle cells are
replaced by scar tissue that does not contract. Ventricle thus becomes
less constrictive, and as a result heart failure may develop. "Patients
with heart failure have very high mortality rate. In 5-year observation
it is higher than in many forms of cancer. This is a clinical problem we
are facing" - added Prof. Tendera.
Therefore, the scientific
experiment will involve both post-MI patients and those with heart
failure. Also qualified will be patients with atherosclerosis is so
advanced that they can not be helped by classical methods, i.e. with
drugs. Bypass or angioplasty is also impossible in this case. Such
persons also suffer because of the low quality of life - despite
medicine and rehabilitation they feel severe pain, even with little
effort.
The project coordinator Assoc. Wojciech Wojakowski
explained that the repair mechanism is not "re-growth" of cardiac muscle
cells. "The action of cells, however, consists in the fact that can
form new, small blood vessels. They provide better blood flow to the
area of the heart, which is viable, but ischemic. They also produce
agents that prevent cellular death and inhibit inflammatory reactions.
They are thus carriers of substances beneficial to ischemic myocardial
cells"- said Wojakowski.
Treatment with stem cells consists in
their collection from the bone marrow of the patient, and then isolating
and injecting them into the coronary artery, or directly into the heart
muscle.
The grant enabled the centre in Katowice to purchase the
necessary NOGA system. It is a system of special electrodes and
catheters that are introduced via the femoral artery into the lumen of
the left ventricle. A map is generated based on electrical and
mechanical measurements, and a thin needle ejected from the catheter is
delivers stem cells to ischemic areas. Doctors from the Department of
Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Medical University of
Silesia in Katowice will participate in collecting and preparing the
marrow. LUN
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland
last modification: 2010-12-23
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