Bone Marrow Cells Repair
Heart Damage in Mice

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New research in mice suggests it may be possible to harness the body's own cells to repair damage after a heart attack.

The potential healing powers of stem cells, the immature cells that can form a variety of specialized cells, have received much attention of late, and now researchers in New York report a successful effort--at least in mice--to harness the body's own stem cells in order to treat the heart.

A team led by Dr. Piero Anversa, of the New York Medical College in Valhalla, reports that injecting mice with immune system chemicals called cytokines stimulated the production of stem cells in bone marrow to repair heart attack-like damage.

Earlier this year, Anversa and colleagues reported that they were able to prevent some heart attack damage in mice by injecting bone marrow cells directly into the heart. This technique did reduce damage to the heart, but the treatment required surgery on the heart and had a high death rate.

This latest approach seems to be safer, since the cytokines do not have to be injected directly into the heart. In addition, the researchers point out that since the treatment stimulates the body's own cells rather than transplanting cells from another animal, it avoids the risk that the immune system will reject the cells.

The approach was a success in mice, Anversa's team reports in the August 14th Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences early edition online.

The shot of cytokines triggered a 250-fold increase in the number of bone marrow stem cells in the mice. And mice that received the injection fared much better than untreated mice. About a month after a heart attack, 73% of cytokine-treated mice were still alive, compared with less than 20% of untreated mice.

Next, the investigators examined the animals' hearts for signs of tissue repair. Autopsies of all of the treated mice--even those that died a few days after heart attack damage--showed signs of repair, the authors report. In contrast, the researchers detected only scar tissue in untreated mice.

The repair to heart tissue also resulted in important improvements in heart function, the report indicates. Tests of heart function in these mice showed signs of ``a remarkable recovery'' in the heart's pumping ability, according to Anversa and his colleagues.

SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition 2001 August.

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