A new innovative treatment for heart attacks can be done through stem cell therapy. Scientists Discovered that this stem cell therapy treatment can initially repair damage to the heart. The newly discovered method utilizes cells from skin which are regenerated into a beating heart cell.
The said treatment utilizes heart cells that are generated in the laboratory from the skin of a donor who has a good genetic match for the recipient.This experiment was tested in monkeys. Injections of freshly-made heart cells were hurriedly merged into damage areas of the heart and it helped the organ to pump more. However, monkeys who have undergone the procedure have developed odd heart rhythms thus it led the researchers to conclude that they need to work on the treatment further, before considering it for human trials, The Guardian reported.
Heart attacks have always been one of the major causes of death in the world. In UK, hospitals record around 200,000 cases annually. Although 70% of the patients will survive, there are still those who have tissue damage left and it stops their heart from working in a good condition, according to Archy Newsy
Scientists propose the idea that heart attack survivors could be treated through taking skin cells from the patient, and converting them into pumping heart cells. Scientists hope that these cells will take hold and help the heart pump more effectively when injected into the heart. Heart cells will not be rejected by the immune system, so this is an advantage. However, this procedure is indeed time-consuming and expensive for individual patients.
A recent research in Japan has taken this in a different light. They induced heart attacks in five macaques. They treated the damage from the skin of a donor monkey. The donor was a close genetic match, however the recipient of the cells need drugs to prevent their bodies from rejecting the cells.
