Heart Disease | Stem Cells Australia

Condition

Heart Disease

Heart disease is the single leading cause of death in Australia.

Heart attacks cause damage to the heart that is never fully repaired. Although other parts of the body quickly and constantly repair damage – think of your skin when you get a cut – heart muscle cells (called cardiomyocytes) repair very slowly.

These muscles repair much too slowly to repair the damage from a heart attack, and it gets slower as we age.

sca cell images Heart Disease

How could stem cells help?

Understanding the disease

Researchers are investigating how the heart, heart cells and stem cells function. Scientists are also very interested in understanding how hearts in other animals, like fish or newborn mice, regenerate. This could lead to discoveries that unlock the ability of the human heart to repair itself. This basic research is essential for creating the foundation of knowledge needed to propose and develop new treatments.

Developing new drugs

Scientists are able to routinely make beating heart cells from stem cells in the lab. They can use these cells to screen new drugs to make sure they don’t harm heart tissue and can even make heart cells from patients with heart disease and use these cells to identify new drugs that might correct deficiencies.

Replacing lost cells

There is ongoing research to find new ways to stimulate cells in the heart to multiply and repair damage following heart attack and as a result of other conditions. Researchers are developing methods to make large numbers of cardiomyocytes in the lab that are safe for use in transplants.

While the advances in growing these cardiomyocytes are promising steps towards cell-based treatments, there is still lots of work to be done. Researchers have noticed that the cardiomyocytes grown in labs don’t yet fully mature into functioning heart muscle, although recent research has shown ways in which this might be achieved. Determining how to grow cells that are fully functional will be critical to developing cell-based regenerative medicines.

What are the challenges?

Medical treatments that affect the heart carry significant risks because the heart is critical for life.

Using stem cells to make cardiomyocytes for transplantation requires that clinicians can make sure that all the cells are truly cardiomyocytes.

If the wrong kinds of cells are accidentally transplanted, they could cause cancerous tumours, generate unwanted types of cells or cause other complications. It’s still uncertain how to make lab-made cardiomyocytes for transplantation grow to be fully mature, integrate into damaged areas of the heart or beat at the same rate as the heart's original cardiomyocytes.

Where can I find out more about clinical trials?

There have been a large number of clinical trials conducted to examine safety and effectiveness of various cell therapies for heart diseases. Overall, even the most successful studies have failed to show an improvement in the heart that is better than using existing medicines. The largest problem appears to be that cells applied in treatments do not stay in the damaged areas of the heart. This is because the cells don’t survive and/or integrate with the heart tissue.

Researchers are currently trying to address these issues to improve the chances for successful cell therapies. Unfortunately, individuals should be aware that the field of research examining stem-cell-based heart treatments has had a large number of published results retracted because data was manipulated to support positive conclusions and outcomes.

There are a number of sites that list clinical trials, including the clinicaltrials.gov registry. Please note that the scientific justification for the intervention and the credentials of those offering the service may have NOT been fully evaluated by this registry. Your findings may include listings that are NOT legitimate clinical trials. Please consult with your medical specialist or general practitioner as they are best placed to advise you on whether you would be a good candidate for a trial given your circumstances.

Please note: Although some clinics may claim to already offer stem cell treatments for various forms of heart disease, there are serious questions about the scientific rationale and the safety of many of these approaches. Currently, there are no proven, safe and effective stem cell treatments for this condition available in Australia, the EU, US or elsewhere.

Some of this material has been adapted from factsheets produced by EuroStemCell.org under a Creative Commons license.
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