Scientists from the United Kingdom have started a stem cell trial for patients who have suffered from a heart attack. The study aims to find out whether stem cell is successful in rehabilitating the heart's damaged parts after an attack.
The researchers recruited 3,000 patients from 11 various countries across Europe. All participants will be subjected to the normal treatment which includes the insertion of a small tube to widen the arteries. Half of them, however, will receive stem cell injections. The stem cell which will be used will come from the patients' bone marrow.
Diseases affecting the heart have been the biggest killer in the United Kingdom. According to the 2012 study done by Cochrane Collaboration, stem cell treatments for heart attack patients may pave the way for "modest improvement". Over the years, there were many clinical trials trying to look into how stem cells can help the heart repair damaged tissues, but this study will be the largest and "definitive trial" ever to be made.
"After 15 years of research we will now have a clear answer. We hope to show that stem-cell injections can cut the number of people dying from heart attacks by 25 percent.", director of cardiology at Barts Health NHS Trust and chief investigator for the study, Professor Anthony Mathur, told BBC News.
"If it works, it would open up a whole new branch of medicine, and give heart attack patients an entirely new treatment," he added.
Although the test seems to be promising, researchers have yet to outline how exactly stem cells can help the heart repair its damaged tissues and arteries after a heart attack. For decades, stem cells from a patient's bone marrow have been transplanted to other parts of the body; however, most of these cases are classified as like-for-like replacements. The biggest challenge that this trial is facing is to show that the transplanted stem cells will survive in the heart.
