Heart Valve Stem Cell Research

But this is still an extremely young scientific.

Heart valve stem cell research. That said i thought you might find this video very interesting. Autologous biological heart valves. That s based partly on recent animal studies in which scientists at both institutions isolated stem cells from the injured animals hearts and infused them back into the hearts of those same animals. In fact says brinker the new cells have a pre determined cardiac fate.

Considering my fascination with medical technology i recently came across an interesting video about the use of stem cells to create heart valve replacements for the treatment of valvular disorders including aortic stenosis and mitral regurgitation. Jones 69 first learned about the heart stem cell trial in a convenience store. Research is ongoing to test cellular therapies to treat heart attacks by combining different types of stem cells repeating transplantations or improving stem cell patches. Discovery of cardiac stem cells.

Several research teams around the country are exploring different ways of harnessing stem cells which have the ability to form many types of specialized cells to mend broken hearts. The stem cell patients also showed improved quality of life and day to day functioning. As you can see the use of stem cells to treat heart patients shows great promise. People with valvular heart disease may require surgery to repair or replace the damaged heart valve.

Scientists thought the heart didn t have its own stem cells until professor antonio beltrami at the university of udine in italy described a small population of stem cells in the heart in 2003. Myocardial infarction is the leading cause of death worldwide. A new treatment using stem cells which have the potential to grow into a variety of heart cell types could potentially repair and regenerate damaged heart tissue. Stem cells can now be used to correct heart and valve degeneration.

In the past i have written several stories about stem cell use for heart valve. In a study published last february in the lancet researchers treated 17 heart attack patients with an infusion of stem cells taken from their own hearts. Currently medical pharmaceutical and device based therapies only delay the progression of the disease and do not actually repair the heart. Center for regenerative medicine researchers plan to develop biological heart valves using a patient s own cells.

While many mechanical and biological replacement options exist today each has its drawbacks. Helping the heart regenerate itself after damage is a dream of cardiovascular researchers. He was buying diet soda when he saw a newspaper headline about the proposed research.