骨髓幹細胞治療心臟病 減低心室肥大的程度
心臟病的發生往往是由於提供心肌細胞的血管受到阻塞，減少氧氣的供應，造成心肌細胞的壞死，並進而增加心臟負擔產生心室肥大的現象。
邁阿密大學的醫學博士Joshua M. Hare和其研究團隊針對八位患有心肌梗塞的病患做臨床試驗，利用病患的骨髓幹細胞，經心導管直接植入受損的心臟組織，經一年的追蹤，發現心室肥大的範圍有縮小，並有良好的收縮現象。這項發現已發表在美國心臟協會線上期刊－血液循還研究
科學家目前也正進行研究，利用同樣富含造血幹細胞的臍帶血，胎盤和周邊血，來進行心肌修補的試驗。
Stem Cells Can Bring Heart Back To Normal After Attack
A heart attack takes place when blood vessels that supply blood to the heart are blocked, preventing enough oxygen from getting to the organ. The heart muscle dies or becomes permanently damaged, tissue is scarred and the heart becomes enlarged. Now for survivors of cardiac arrest, stem cell injections afterwards can help enlarged hearts recover in size and function.
Joshua M. Hare, MD, of the University of Miami, and colleagues reviewed the treatment of eight patients at an average of 5.7 years after myocardial infarction (MI) didn't show significant ejection fraction gains, but the improvements in cardiac chamber dimensions and contractility persisted through the end of one year of follow-up.
Function of the heart muscle in the treated region showed signs of improvement by three months. The infarct region, or area of tissue damage, dropped 18.3% in size by one year after stem cell injections.
By 12 months after the injections, regional contractility as measured by peak eulerian circumferential strain had returned to the level of the border zone around the infarct. Reverse remodeling in left ventricular chamber dimensions took longer, gaining significance only at six months post-treatment.
Stem cells have a unique feature in that they can be coaxed into developing into some or all of the 220 cell types found in the human body. Of the three types of stem cells, embryonic stem cells have the greatest potential in that they can theoretically become any of the 220 cell types. Adult stem cells are less useful in that they have already started to specialize and can only become one of a few cell types. Induced pluripotent stem cells are specially treated cells that can be processed to behave somewhat like embryonic stem cells.
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), used in this research, are multipotent stem cells that give rise to all the blood cell types including myeloid (monocytes and macrophages, neutrophils, basophils, eosinophils, erythrocytes, megakaryocytes/platelets, dendritic cells), and lymphoid lineages (T-cells, B-cells, NK-cells).
HSCs are found in the bone marrow of adults, which includes femurs, hip, ribs, sternum, and other bones. Cells can be obtained directly by removal from the hip using a needle and syringe, or from the blood following pre-treatment. Other sources for clinical and scientific use include umbilical cord blood, placenta and mobilized peripheral blood.
Source: The American Heart Association Circulation Research