New Cells For Ailing Hearts

N E W   O R L E A N S, Nov. 13 -- Doctors may soon be able to rejuvenate weakly pumping hearts by creating brand-new muscle and blood vessels fashioned from cells scavenged elsewhere in patients’ bodies, new research suggests.

The idea is to repair the hearts of victims of congestive heartfailure, a condition that afflicts nearly 5 million people in theUnited States, by recreating heart tissue damaged by heart attacksand the wear and tear of aging.

Several new reports on this approach were presented Sunday atthe annual scientific meeting of the American Heart Association.Although most of the research is still being done in animals,French researchers described one attempt to patch a man’s heartusing muscle gathered from his thigh.

Exciting New Science

“This is incredibly exciting new science,” commented Dr. RoseMarie Robertson of Vanderbilt University, the association’spresident.

Heart failure occurs when damage to the heart muscle weakens theorgan’s power to pump blood forcefully enough. Although medicinescan help, many victims suffer crippling shortness of breath, lackof stamina and swelling of the legs.

In the French case, first made public last month, doctorstreated a 72-year-old man with severe heart failure resulting froma heart attack, which left his main pumping chamber scarred anddisabled.

Under local anesthesia, they removed a bit of muscle from histhigh, then grew it in the lab to create millions of contractingcells called skeletal myoblasts. On June 15, they transplanted 800million of these cells with a needle into and around the heartscar.

Dr. Philippe Menasche of Bichat Hospital in Paris said the manhas improved dramatically, and the new tissue in his heart iscontracting rhythmically. However, the man also received a coronarybypass operation, so doctors cannot be sure how much of his changeis due to the transplant.

Encouraging Results

“We repopulated the dead scar with living cells,” Menaschesaid. “These are encouraging results, but we have to be very,very, very cautious.”