Stem Cells for Heart Repair

Dr. Srivastava and his collaborators conducted a number of experiments with fibroblasts from mouse hearts. They found that they could insert three genes into a mouse heart fibroblast, which doesn't "beat," and turn it into a mouse heart myocyte, which has the ability to contribute to the heart's blood pumping ability.

Gene Therapy Transforms Structural Cells into Working Cells

The University of California team then started investigations of using a similar procedure with human heart tissue. Using human fibroblasts, Srivastava and colleagues found that they could insert a different three genes so that human fibroblasts could also be transformed into beating cardiomyocytes. Although they have not been able to "grow a heart in a Petri dish" as some news reports have suggested, this remains an unquestionably remarkable scientific feat.

Dr. Srivastava's technique doesn't promise practical applications in the near future. But the fact is, if you have had a heart attack, it is your own stem cells, created in your own bone marrow and fat, that will repair your heart (to the extent it can be repaired).

If You Have Had a Heart Attack, Does Stem Cell Therapy Hold Out Hope for You?

Without having any kind of medically directed stem cell procedure, I myself have benefited from stem cell repair to my heart. Immediately after my second heart attack, the "tip" of my heart was essentially dead. But just a few weeks after my third heart attack, my entire heart had repaired itself with the help of my own stem cells, so that my entire heart is able to pump blood (just not in perfect rhythm, unfortunately). My body's natural supply of stem cells found their way to my heart to repair the damage done by my heart attacks. 

My experience is hardly unique. Even as adults, our bodies continue to make stem cells that can transform themselves, without any genetic modification, into healthy heart tissue. Whether this happens in time for your survival, however, is not guaranteed, and this is one of the determining factors that go into your odds of surviving a heart attack.

Where Are There Hospitals Doing 

A number of hospitals in the People's Republic of China, in Thailand, and at least one in Israel currently offer different kinds of stem cell treatments, all using your own stem cells, not stem cells from an aborted baby, for treatment of damaged hearts. For treatment at the hospitals, you will have to pay cash in advance, and you will have to travel to the hospital for treatment.

If you are looking for stem cell therapy after heart attack in the USA, however, your best bet, and it's a long shot, is to call the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. A prestigious research institution, the Cleveland Clinic is conducting clinical trials of stem cell therapy either immediately after a heart attack or long after a heart attack with the patient's own stem cells, and treatment weeks or months after a heart attack with donor stem cells.

The treatment is free, although the clinic will not pay patient expenses or compensation for participating in the trial. Not everyone who might benefit from the treatment is accepted to the study, but it may not hurt to ask.