American
Heart Association Meeting Report: BCVS-12 Abstract 62
Study Highlights:
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Elderly heart failure patients’ heart cells were rejuvenated with
modified stem cells.
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The rejuvenated cells could one day be used to repair damaged heart
muscles.
(July 23, 2012) Damaged and aged heart tissue of older heart
failure patients was rejuvenated by stem cells modified by scientists,
according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Basic
Cardiovascular Sciences 2012 Scientific Sessions.
The study is simultaneously
published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The research could one day lead
to new treatments for heart failure patients, researchers said.
“Since patients with heart
failure are normally elderly, their cardiac stem cells aren’t very healthy,”
said Sadia Mohsin, Ph.D., one of the study authors and a post-doctoral research
scholar at San Diego State University’s Heart Institute in San Diego, Cal. “We
modified these biopsied stem cells and made them healthier. It is like turning
back the clock so these cells can thrive again.”
Modified human stem cells helped
the signaling and structure of the heart cells, which were biopsied from
elderly patients. Researchers modified the stem cells in the laboratory with
PIM-1, a protein that promotes cell survival and growth.