A Change of Heart: Stem Cells May Transform Treatment for Heart Failure (preview)

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Stem cells may transform the way doctors treat heart failure

By Ferris Jabr

HEART REPAIR: Harvesting semispecialized stem cells from an ailing heart, helping them to make millions of copies of themselves and injecting those cells into the heart enable the organ to break down scar tissue and grow new muscle. Image: Bryan Christie

In early 2009 Mike Jones bought a newspaper at a convenience store in Louisville, Ky., and read about a local doctor who wanted to try something unprecedented: healing an ailing heart by harvesting and multiplying its native stem cellsimmature cells with regenerative powers. Jones, then 65, had congestive heart failure: his heart was no longer pumping blood efficiently. He contacted the doctor, Roberto Bolli of the University of Louisville, and in July of that year Jones became the first person in the world to receive an infusion of his own cardiac stem cells.

This article was originally published with the title A Change of Heart.

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A Change of Heart: Stem Cells May Transform Treatment for Heart Failure (preview)