Adult Stem Cells from Veins May Treat Heart Disease

By Liz Townsend

Researchers in England are studying the use of adult stem cells obtained from leftover veins during heart bypass surgery. They hope that one day these cells could be used to repair damage after a heart attack.

“This is the first time that anyone has been able to extract stem cells from sections of vein left over from heart bypass operations,” Professor Paolo Madeddu of Bristol University told BBC News. “These cells might make it possible for a person having a bypass to also receive a heart treatment using their body’s own stem cells.”

During bypass surgery, doctors remove a long section of vein from the patient’s leg and use it to replace a blocked artery near the heart. Only a portion of the leg vein is actually used in most operations, so there is usually a section left over.

When Madeddu and his team tried to extract stem cells from the leftover piece, they were surprised to obtain thousands of cells. “That is not nearly enough for treatments,” said Madeddu, according to the Daily Mail. “However, it provided us with a source from which we could get those cells to proliferate. We seeded the stem cells in special plates and were able to grow them until we got samples of 50 million to 60 million cells—which was enough to use as treatments.”

Much more study needs to be done before these cells can be used to treat humans, but initial tests on mice showed that they helped new blood vessels to grow around damaged hearts, The Observer reported.

“It brings the possibility of ‘cell therapy’ for damaged hearts one step closer,” Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, told BBC News, “and, importantly, if the chemical messages produced by the cells can be identified, it is possible that drugs could be developed to achieve the same end.”