University of Minnesota researchers are focusing on finding stem cell therapies for heart diseases. Cardiovascular diseases affect nearly 62 million people and is the number-one cause of death in the United States.
Stem cells offer hope to those with heart disease because they might be able to stimulate the growth of new heart-muscle cells. Because heart muscle cells do not replace themselves naturally, those who now suffer from a heart attack, from congenital heart disease, or from congestive heart failure have few treatment options. And while heart transplants potentially could help more patients, the supply of organs is limited.
Stem cell researchers at the University of Minnesota are working on strategies to both prevent heart failure and to treat symptoms of heart disease. Manipulating stem cells produced in a subject’s own bone marrow, they are working to regenerate functional heart muscle mass to replace damaged tissue directly. They also study how to nurture stem cells into cells that, when remotely injected in the body, will hone in on damaged heart tissues. If these stem cells do regenerate heart muscle, the principle might be applied to diseases of the nervous system as well.
Clinical trials using a patient’s own stem cells, derived from bone marrow, have already been carried out in United States and Europe. The possibility of testing stem cells derived from embryonic stem cell lines to treat heart disease is currently quite remote.
The public can support progress by Stem Cell Institute researchers at the University of Minnesota by contributing to the institute’s fund at the Minnesota Medical Foundation.
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