Stem cells have the promise to treat numerous medical problems from Parkinson's disease,multiple sclerosis,cancer,and severe burns to Alzheimer's disease. Now researchers have identified another promising potential use for stem cells-heart disease which is responsible for four out of every ten deaths in the US each year. Bioethical concerns have been raised numerous times about the use of stem cells which are sometimes derived from embryos. In the case of this current research this problem has been avoided with the use of bone marrow stem cells from the same animal who has had the heart disease. The bone marrow is full of stem cells which are sufficiently undifferentiated to permit them to mature into many different types of tissues-including heart muscle.
Heart attacks kill cells in the heart muscle. Medical research scientists have sought to repair the heart muscle itself after a patient experiences a heart attack. The Weil Institute of Critical Care Medicine, located in Rancho Mirage, California has a very exciting treatment in the research phase which involved the use of bone marrow stem cells. The essence of the discovery is that by using stem cells obtained from the bone marrow and getting them into the heart muscle they can begin to replace the damaged heart muscles. The stem cells can replace and repopulate the dead cells and change dead tissues into working heart cells.
Scientists produced new,beating heart cells using stem cells obtained from the bone marrow donated from rats. The stem cells were injected into the bloodstream and found their way to the damaged heart tissue where they repaired the damage and measurably improved heart function.
