Regenerative medicine and stem cells focus of Mayo Clinic heart research

Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Rochester are looking for new ways to repair a heart that doesn't beat properly in the days following a heart attack.

Traditionally, a person with an irregular heartbeat -- a problem known medically as dyssynchrony -- gets treated with a pacemaker to coach the heart back into normal rhythm.

But that's ineffective for about a third of patients, said Dr. Andre Terzic, director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Medicine.

That's why researchers at Mayo turned their gaze toward regenerative medicine and adult stem cells, the kind that can be guided to become most any type of tissue.

The teamhas demonstrated in a proof-of-concept experiment that heart rhythm disruptions after a heart attack can be fixed with regenerative medicine.

The researchers conducted early-stage research with mice, which means there's much study yet to be done. Although mouse studies do not always translate well for application into humans, the study, Terzic said, shows that it's possible to repair a heart's rhythm with stem cells.

"This extends the work that we are doing in defining what could be the most-useful applications for regenerative medicine," whose team has already begun clinical trials in humans and has the ability to coax a patient's own stem cells to become potentially reparative heart tissue.

The new study in mice "introduces -- for the first time -- stem cell-based 'biological re-synchronization' as a novel means to treat cardiac dyssynchrony," Terzic said in a Mayo announcement.

It will take time to translate what has been found into use for humans, Terzic said in an interview with the Post-Bulletin. But, in the meantime, researchers can begin looking for signs of re-synchronization in other ongoing research studies, he said.

Heart chambers must beat in synchrony to ensure the proper pumping, which is why the possibility of stem-cell treatment when pacemakers don't work seems so enticing.

Read more from the original source:
Regenerative medicine and stem cells focus of Mayo Clinic heart research