Washington, Oct 21: Researchers at the University of Texas M D Anderson Cancer Centre have observed that cells taken from a patient's own blood may one day be able to repair damaged heart tissue.
The study published online in the current issue of the journal Circulation reports that human blood stem cells or "master" cells that produce other types of body cells help repair damaged heart.



"This takes us a big step ahead. Taking stem cells from blood is a lot easier, and a lot less painful, than taking it from bone marrow," Edward T H Yeh, lead author and professor and of M D Anderson's Department of Cardiology, said.

"Such a therapy cannot bring back dead heart muscle, but it can help restore weakened hearts, no matter what the cause of the damage was," says Yeh.


The research led by Martin Kvrbling and Zeev Estrov also contributes more evidence to the idea that stem cells circulating in the blood can transform themselves into different organ systems as needed to repair injury.
Bureau Report