Stem Cells in the Heart?

NewScientist reports that researchers have discovered stem cells in the heart, leading them to believe that the heart can regenerate itself. From the article: "The finding raises the possibility that these cardiac stem cells could one day be manipulated to rebuild tissues damaged by heart disease - still the leading cause of death in the US and UK. Because fully developed heart cells do not divide, experts have believed the organ was unable to regenerate after injury. But, in 2003, researchers at Piero Anversa's laboratory at New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York, US, discovered stem cells in the hearts of mice, and subsequently humans. However, they still did not know whether these stem cells actually resided in the heart or had merely migrated there from another tissue, such as bone marrow."

This would be really helpful for someone I know.

[thealsir]

He was born without an aorta, and has had 20+ surgeries, each time replacing the tubes connecting his heart to the rest of his body with longer ones. If a compatible aorta could be grown just with stem cells, he would have no further need for surgery.

Right now, he is set for a few more years before they have to cut him open again and make adjustments. I hope by then they can just replace the tubes with living tissue and also replace the unsightly scar tissue that has developed from being cut open so many times.

Let's pray to $DEITY that this gets off the ground. I'm pretty sure it will, mindless theologans aside.

Limited to heart tissue?

[timeOday]

these cardiac stem cells could one day be manipulated to rebuild tissues damaged by heart disease

Is there some reason these stem cells could only be used to rebuild heart tissue? Why not any other tissue? If there are stem cells scattered throughout the body, what is the motivation for getting them from human embryos?

Re:Heard of this before....

[iabervon]

There was a case recently where a girl with a transplanted heart couldn't stay on the anti-rejection drugs, and they were able to remove the transplanted heart and restart her original heart, which had recovered while she wasn't using it. A Google search for "organ removed" finds a bunch of stories about it.

Re:What about...

[chudnall]

For some, heart disease is a lifestyle issue. Then there's people like me. Every single male person (that I know) on my father's side of the family has had heart attacks and subsequent bypass, many at a relatively early age. My dad had his emergency quintuple bypass at 43. His veins were already in such bad shape, that they had to cut all the way down both legs to harvest enough suitable segments. He was not overweight and exercised regularly. Needless to say, I try to practice a very heart-healthy lifestyle. I don't really have much reason to believe it will do a lot of good, though.If I follow my family history, I'll have my first heart attack in about 10 years, Get bypass surgery, be in the hospital about every 10 years after that, and finally die (if I'm lucky) of a massive stroke. Lifestyle changes haven't helped anyone in my family. So I welcome any new scientific advances in this area.

Re:This would be really helpful for someone I know

[thealsir]

That would be true if it were initial growth, or if you wanted to summon the body to grow an aorta on its own. But an aorta could be made from generic stem-cell-cultured tissue, and it would be accepted by the body's other cells.

Re:what exactly is the news here?

[Memnos]

TFA didn't really go into any depth, but the news, if there is any, would depend upon how pluripotent the stem cells are; that is, what types of fully-formed cells they can produce. For a heart to regenerate after an insult such as an infarction, numerous cell types must be regenerated, from cardiac myocytes to the specialized neurons that synchronize the heartbeat (e.g. the sino-atrial complex). So, depending on what they can get to regenerate Real Soon Now, it may in fact be news.

Re:Cardiac Scar Tissue Mechanism

[Doctor Beavis]

I know much less about this, so am sort of speculating, but I know that the scar consists of fibrous tissue, which is created from fibroblasts. There might be some of these present in the heart, but they more likely arrive via blood vessels, leave the vessels (extravasate), and migrate to the damaged area.

Re:Protest

[frickendevil]

Supprisingly a heart can beat outside of the body, quite effectively too.

The SA and AV nodes have a pacemaker feature that makes a heart beat at a constant rate of about 100 bpm (for SA control, 60~ for AV control), and this is not controlled by the CNS. However parasympathetic innervation of the heart slows the heart rate to about 70 bpm. This is why heart transplant patients have a high heart rate constantly, because they have no para/sympathetic control of the heart. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiac_pacemaker/ [wikipedia.org]

Anyways if a good enough medium is made to supply the heart with nutrition, and about the same consistency as blood, it could support a heart beat for a fair while.