Source: The Lancet via Medical News Today
Date: 29 June 2007 - 1:00 PDT
Summary:
The use of stem cell therapy to prevent heart attacks is explored in a Comment published in this week's edition of The Lancet. Professor Harald Arnesen and colleagues from the Ullevål University Hospital, Oslo, Norway looked at studies published to date on the relatively new technique of using of autologous cells derived from bone marrow cells (BMC) to strengthen cardiac function. Autologous cells are sourced from the patient they are used to treat. The authors refer to a trial done in 2002 in which such cells were administered into the heart with encouraging results. The authors say: "The results of this and several other small uncontrolled studies with the same method were encouraging. However, three randomised trials that tested therapy with BMC were negative for the primary endpoint, improvement in left ventricular ejection-fraction (LVEF)."
