Stem cells show promise for patients with severe angina
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Some severe forms of angina, chest pain caused by insufficient blood supply to the heart, can make light jogging or even walking difficult. Now a small study indicates that injecting patients with their own stem cells might offer some relief.
In 167 patients with angina that didn’t respond to drugs, angioplasty or surgery, Northwestern researchers coaxed a type of stem cell, called CD34+, to grow in the patient’s body, and extracted samples from each patient. The researcher’s hunch: These cells might stimulate the growth of new blood vessels that could improve blood delivery to heart tissue.
Then each patient received injections—at 10 sites in the heart—of either low or high doses of their own stem cells or a placebo solution.
After six months, even patients with low doses of stem cell injections had fewer angina episodes per week than the control group (about seven compared to 11); results were still similar after one year. The low-dose stem cell group could also exercise longer, lasting an average of 139 seconds on a treadmill, compared to 69 seconds by the control group. Of note: Results didn’t differ significantly between low and high doses of stem cells. The study, funded by Baxter Healthcare, was published online Thursday in Circulation Research.
Lead author Dr. Douglas Losordo has this to say in a news release:
“While we need to validate these results in phase III studies before definitive conclusions can be drawn, we believe this is an important milestone in considering whether the body’s own stem cells may one day be used to treat chronic cardiovascular conditions.”
The procedure isn’t without risk. Two patients had difficulties during the injections—one recovered, but one person from the placebo group died from cardiac tamponade, in which excess fluid leads to heart compression.
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