Heart Attack Trial Treatment by Mesenchymal Stem Cells

A new study has just been announced at a Centre in Illinois that Osiris is funding and supplying mesenchymal stem cells obtained from healthy volunteer donors' bone marrow in a trial for those who have had a single heart attack. The interesting thing about this trial is that there are several deemed advantages from the patient's perspective:
1. No match required! 2. Infusion through a standard IV line, no angioplasty or surgical procedures required.

“A person who has had a single, severe heart attack may survive but can be left with substantial damage to the heart muscle as a result of the blood supply to the heart muscle being cut off during the heart attack. The damaged muscle inhibits the heart's overall ability to pump blood, leading to heart failure,” said Rush principal investigator cardiologist Dr. Gary Schaer, head of the Rush Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory. Rush is the only center in Illinois participating in the trial. There are 15 other sites nationwide participating in the study."

It is thought that the mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are in the early stages of development and thus do not trigger an immune response when placed in someone else's body. And since adult stem cells are designed by nature to perform tissue repair in mature adults, it is believed that these cells can be used without fear of rejection and promote healing in damaged organs by "homing" into the site of injury. The doctor conducting the trial says that the stem cells know how to go to the heart after a recent heart attack.

Osiris grows the cells in culture to very high numbers, allowing a single donor's cells to treat thousands of patients. The cells are then frozen at Osiris and taken out for distribution or use when required. The article doesn't state how much each infusion costs nor how many cells need to be administered (probably by body weight as they had announced in a previous trial). As the cells may have a multipotential lineage, I wonder if the doctor will also be monitoring other organ functions at the same time to see if there is a global improvement in the patients receiving these stem cells.

According to the article: "The Phase I study is double blind; two thirds of the participants receive the stem cells and one-third receive a placebo. To be eligible for the trial, patients must have experienced a first heart attack within the past seven days, and are between 21 and 85 years old. Patients are given a pulmonary breathing test, a CT scan and an MRI before the procedure. Patients undergo an MRI at the end of the study to see how much of the diseased heart muscle has been repaired and measure heart function. A patient may stay in the hospital only 2-3 days for observation, and then go home. The total time commitment for the study is two years."

If Osiris succeeds in improving heart attack in this trial, the role of cardiologists and cardiac surgeons may change profoundly in the way that a patient is treated. This is revolutionary and exciting news and Osiris might just live up to its name of the god of death and resurrection.
Imagine... just a shot of mesenchymal stem cells, could change the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients living with heart disease and perhaps reduce the possibility of sudden death in Malaysia.