A physician-scientist at Sydney\u2019s Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research (WMI) has, in a world first, collaborated with scientists at the University of Washington to successfully grow heart muscle cells in sufficient quantity to repair the damaged heart of a primate after myocardial infarction (a.k.a. heart attack).<\/p>\n
The significant breakthrough, published today in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, is\u00a0being described as a \u201cbold new step\u201d towards solving the growing epidemic of chronic heart\u00a0failure, which kills more than 20,000 Australians each year.<\/p>\n
The paper\u2019s first author, Westmead Hospital Cardiologist and WMI\/University of Sydney\u00a0Researcher Dr James Chong, collaborated with researchers from the University of\u00a0Washington to produce the breakthrough findings.<\/p>\n
For the first time they were able to grow stem cell-derived heart muscle at a sufficiently large\u00a0scale to treat large animals.<\/p>\n
Injecting the cells into the animals\u2019 infarcted hearts resulted in large-scale re-muscularisation\u00a0and regeneration of the failing organ.<\/p>\n
Dr Chong said the research is a significant breakthrough in using the new technology of\u00a0regenerative medicine for human patients with heart disease, at a time when the problem is\u00a0growing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cChronic heart disease rates in Australia and worldwide are reaching epidemic proportions\u00a0and one in two people with advanced-stage heart failure will die within one year of\u00a0diagnosis,\u201d Dr Chong said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile adult stem cells are already being used in clinical trials on heart attack sufferers, that\u00a0method has so far demonstrated only modest benefits so new treatments are urgently\u00a0needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy using pluripotent stem cells, which have superior plasticity, we were able to grow and\u00a0graft stem cell-derived heart muscle in significantly larger numbers than previously possible.
\n\u201cWe found that the stem cell-derived heart muscle engrafted and survived in the infracted\u00a0hearts over a much longer period than has ever been previously demonstrated in a clinically\u00a0relevant model.\u201d<\/p>\nDr Chong said this technology is getting closer to growing heart muscle cells on a scale\u00a0large enough to treat human patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis technology brings us one step closer to the clinic and a possible future cure for heart\u00a0failure,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Working with Professor Charles Murry and his US team, Dr Chong showed that Human\u00a0Stem Cell-Derived Heart Muscle (hESC-CM) grafts could be produced on a clinical scale\u00a0and then cryo-preserved with good viability in preparation for transplantation.<\/p>\n
Animal subjects, who had undergone conditions similar to a heart attack, were treated with\u00a0hESC-CMs injected into the damaged heart tissue.<\/p>\n
The subjects were observed for as long as three months \u2013 a much longer period than\u00a0previous large animal studies \u2013 and results found that the new heart muscle cells achieved\u00a0electro-mechanical coupling with the original host heart.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the study showed for the first time that in-growth of blood vessels from the host\u00a0heart was responsible for supplying the grafted heart muscle with nutrients.
\n\u201cThe stem cell-derived heart muscle was able to replace damaged and dead heart tissue by\u00a0up to 40 per cent,\u201d Dr Chong said.<\/p>\n\u201cThese studies support the further use of human stem cell-derived heart muscle for heart\u00a0regeneration which could one day be a cure for heart failure and replace the need for heart\u00a0transplantation.\u201d<\/p>\n
University of Sydney Clinical Professor of Cardiology, Professor David Ross, said the work\u00a0of Dr Chong and fellow researchers was an important step in possible new treatments for
\nheart failure.<\/p>\n\u201cHeart muscle has little or no capacity for regeneration after damage and repeated insults\u00a0result in progressive reduction in the heart\u2019s pumping capacity, causing heart failure,\u201d\u00a0Professor Ross said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCurrent treatments have limited efficacy and do not rectify the basic problem of insufficient\u00a0contractile heart muscle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe research in this paper suggests it is possible to insert functional new heart muscle in\u00a0damaged areas in a primate heart very similar to a human heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile more research is needed into the long-term efficacy and safety of this approach, if it\u00a0proves effective it will transform the treatment of heart failure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Dr Chong and a team at WMI are seeking additional funding in order to continue large\u00a0animal modelling tests at Westmead in the hope of moving to human clinical trials in a few\u00a0years.<\/p>\n
Donations can be made by calling the Westmead Medical Research Foundation on 1800\u00a0639 037 or securely online at www.wmrf.org.au.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A physician-scientist at Sydney\u2019s Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research (WMI) has, in a world first, collaborated with scientists at the University of Washington to successfully grow heart muscle cells in sufficient quantity to repair the damaged heart of a primate after myocardial infarction (a.k.a. heart attack). The significant breakthrough, published today in the prestigious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2446,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"categories":[19],"class_list":["post-2497","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}