Stem cells can repair damaged hearts

Bone marrow stem cells can be used to help the heart that has been damaged after a heart attack repair the injury, a new study finds.

Previous studies had reported that the injection of stem cells extracted from the patient directly into the heart can treat heart attack patients.

The new study, however, benefited from the intravenous infusion of a stem cell product known as Prochymal harvested from a single healthy donor and cultured in laboratories.

According to the study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, stem cells can engraft to the heart and repopulate the dead cells with new live ones in order to treat the parts damaged during a cardiac arrest.

"Stem cell-treated patients had ... significant improvements in heart, lung, and global function,” said lead researcher Joshua M. Hare, adding that an improved heart function was reported following the treatment particularly in those patients with large amounts of cardiac damage.

The technique was reported to be safe without placing patients at a greater risk of suffering from side effects such as cardiac arrhythmias.

Scientists are optimistic that their findings will pave the way for finding new treatments to help cardiac patients.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=112693§ionid=3510210.

French develop human skin from stem cells

French researchers have successfully used human embryonic stem cells to create new skin to help those suffering from serious burns.

In existing cell therapy, a person's own skin cells are grown in the laboratory to provide replacement skin in severe burn victims.

The process takes more than three weeks and is associated with a variety of complications. During this three-week the victims' wounds are covered with specially processed skin from a deceased donor; however, the practice increases the risk of rejection and disease transmission.

According to a study published in The Lancet, the newly generated cells have the characteristics of the epidermis. Once manipulated on an artificial surface, they can form a layer of the skin.

In the new method, the fully formed human skin develops within 12 weeks after the transplantation of the stem cells. The skin is reported to have a structure consistent with human skin.

Scientists are optimistic that their findings will help the problems of rejection that burns patients currently face, adding that it would provide "an unlimited resource for temporary skin replacement in patients with large burns awaiting grafts of their own skin".

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=111847§ionid=3510210.