Damaged heart can be repaired with stem cells

Dubai: The recovery of a damaged heart is possible by using stem cells of fat tissues from a patient's own body, a medical company has announced.

Bioheart said the stem cells are obtained in 60 minutes and the technique limits damage to the heart muscle after an acute injury, such as a heart attack.

Dr Karl Groth, chairman and CEO of Bioheart, said the cells serve as a catalyst for new vessel formation and the system for obtaining stem cells is an easier and faster procedure with minimal intervention.

Automated system

It has developed a fully-automated system that recovers potentially regenerative stem cells from a patient's own adipose tissue.

Dr Groth said this breakthrough will bring new possibilities and hope of damage repair and cell regeneration in diseases related to cardiac dysfunction.

"One immediate positive impact is the possibility of increasing blood supply to the damaged area and preventing scarring," Dr Groth said.

Extractions

He said this eliminates the need for painful and expensive bone marrow extractions that have been used in some cases of stem-cell treatment for the purposes of cardiovascular therapy.

"This milestone means that the intervention by the medical team is greatly reduced and this in turn means a faster, safer procedure which can be over within an hour."

Bioheart is a US-based company that is an investment of a Middle Eastern medical fund from Ascent Technologies.