By David Prentice

Editor's note. This appears today on Dr. Prentice's blog at www.frc.org

A group at the Mayo Clinic and their collaborators has published results showing that "guided" adult stem cells can effectively repair damaged heart tissue. The scientists isolated mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from the bone marrow of patients with coronary artery disease, "educated" the adult stem cells with a mixture of factors to stimulate growth as cardiac cells, and injected the cells into mice with damaged hearts. The hearts of the mice treated with the adult stem cells showed "superior functional and structural benefit without adverse side effects" over a 1-year follow-up. Compared to control mice, the hearts of the treated mice healed more effectively; with the human adult stem cells repairing and strengthening the hearts, including forming new heart cells. The paper is published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

This new study provides another way to heal hearts with adult stem cells, perhaps increasing the efficiency of the treatment.

Previous studies have already shown that bone marrow adult stem cells can effectively repair human hearts.