A recent study at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute shows how Cardiac Stem Cells infusion will help rejuvenate the aging, cardiovascular muscle. According to Dr. Eduardo Marban, Ph.D., Director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, there is so much potential in treating heart problems using cardiac cells as results show in their lab studies and human trials.
A reservoir of heart stem cells
The scientific team led by Marban found out that the specialized stem cells that patients receive can come from the stockpile the heart possesses. Marban adds that these cells, when purified, isolated, cultured in large numbers, and placed where the damage is, could repair cardiovascular problems.
The European Heart Journal published the study on August 14, 2017.
In the research, the scientists extracted cardiac stem cell from newborn mice and injected them into the hearts of adult rats aged 22 months old. Another group of adult mice had placebo and saline infusion to their hearts. Both groups of mice had comparisons with young rats aged four months old. After a month, The rats with cardiac cell infusion underwent another round of tests.
The effects of the cardio-sphere derived cells infusion
After a month of additional tests for those rats injected with cardiac cells, the results show that the adult rodents experienced enhanced heart functions, displayed longer heart telomeres, exercise capacity improved by 20 percent, and regrew their hair faster than those adult rats treated with placebo and saline infusions.
Science Daily reports that even though the cardio sphere derived stem infusion was through the heart, the effect is noticeable throughout the whole body. The working hypotheses are proven to work, Marban adds.
How do cardiac stems work?
The hypotheses that work proves that the cardio sphere derived cells secrete exosomes, tiny vesicles or air sac fluids that contain significant amounts of nucleic acid.
Like RNA, it can vary its pattern on the behavioral response of tissues to an injury, and the way genes manifest on the muscles, adds Marban.
Dr. Gary Gerstenblith, a professor of medicine of the Cardiology Division at the John Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland said that the very comprehensive study has benefits not only for the treatment of cardiac problems but also in the multiple organ systems of the human body.
Todd Herron, Director of the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center Cardiovascular Regenerative Core Laboratory said that Marban is leading the scientific research in this area. Herron adds that conducting more research and trials will ensure that no damage takes place before proceeding to human tests, reports CNN.
Marban plans to do a simple infusion instead of directly infusing the cardio sphere derived stems through the heart, which is prone to complications. He adds that these cardiac cells had been proven safe to over 100 patients and the plan for other treatments fall under the safety factor.
