Cell Transplantation Could Restore Cardiac Function After Heart Attack

French authors of a research letter in this week’s issue of THE LANCET describe the preliminary success of transplanting muscle stem-cells from the thigh to the heart to restore damaged cardiac tissue after heart attack.

The procedure was done in a 72-year-old man and resulted in improved left-ventricular and overall heart function. After the man’s death 18 months later, the grafted post-infarction scar showed that the undifferentiated stem cells transplanted from his leg had evolved into well developed skeletal myotubes with a preserved contractile structure.

Lead author Albert Hagège from Hopital Europeen Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, comments: “Irrespective of the mechanism, these results lend support to the usefulness of myoblast therapy in a clinical setting, suggest that grafts have long-term viability, that there is formation of non-degenerated functional myotubes, and a phenotypic switch towards slow-twitch fibres that might allow them to sustain a cardiac workload over time.”