Heart muscle cells made in lab successfully transplanted into patient

OSAKA: A research team led by a Japanese medical school professor has conducted the world's first transplant of heart muscle tissues using artificially derived stem cells known as iPS. The patient is now recovering in the general ward of the hospital, foreign media reported.

Yoshiki Sawa of Osaka University's medical school said the transplant was conducted in a clinical trial to study the treatment's effectiveness and safety in a patient with serious heart failure. It is hoped that the transplant of iPS cells will serve as an alternative to a heart transplant, which has been the only option for treating heart failure.

To grow the heart muscle cells in the lab, the researchers turned to induced pluripotent stem cells otherwise known as iPS. Researchers are able to take those iPS cells and make them into any cell they want. In this case, it was heart muscle cells. “I hope that (the transplant) will become a medical technology that will save as many people as possible, as I’ve seen many lives that I couldn’t save,” Sawa was quoted at a news conference reported the Japan Times. As for the patient, the team plans to monitor him during the next year to ascertain how the heart muscle cells perform. The researchers opted to conduct a clinical trial instead of a clinical study because they want approval from Japan’s health ministry. The experimental treatment will be given to 10 patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy. In the trial studies, a sheet of heart muscle tissues made from stem cells is transplanted onto the affected areas of the heart.