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Stem Cells in the Heart?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the heart-could-be-heartier dept.

NewScientist reports that researchers have discovered stem cells in the heart, leading them to believe that the heart can regenerate itself. From the article: "The finding raises the possibility that these cardiac stem cells could one day be manipulated to rebuild tissues damaged by heart disease - still the leading cause of death in the US and UK. Because fully developed heart cells do not divide, experts have believed the organ was unable to regenerate after injury. But, in 2003, researchers at Piero Anversa's laboratory at New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York, US, discovered stem cells in the hearts of mice, and subsequently humans. However, they still did not know whether these stem cells actually resided in the heart or had merely migrated there from another tissue, such as bone marrow."

3 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. what exactly is the news here? by aliscool · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hey, I'm not a stem cell researcher, and I did read the article...
    But there was really not much actual science in this article.
    Are we talking about adult, embryonic or.. I assume not, but cord blood stem cells.
    I assume we are talking about adult stem cells. These have been discovered and are old news. In fact adult stem cells exist in basically any tissue, which includes the heart... So what exactly was the big news story here about?

    1. Re:what exactly is the news here? by Doctor+Beavis · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm doing some stem cell work in a very similar area and may be able to clarify a few points:

      1. They are not talking about embryonic cells. These are often referred to as "cardiac stem cells" and we each have them in our hearts. Thus they would be considered adult stem cells. As mentioned, their existence was established by Anversa's lab (and confirmed by others) a few years ago. That was a huge milestone, because we previously believed that all cells in the heart were "terminally differentiated" or incapable of generating new cells. We now know that there *are* cells in the hear that can do this, but not fast enough to make a difference in most cases. For example, if you have a heart attack, part of the muscle dies. For whatever reason (not enough cells, don't replicate fast enough, etc.), the cardiac stem cells are unable to completely repair the damage. Current trials of stem cells in the heart have focused on delivering cells derived from other sources (bone marrow, muscle cells, etc.), but it would be ideal to understand enough about the cardiac stem cells to be able to just "activate" them or at least improve the efficiency of what they do.

      2. You are absolutely right we are talking about adult stem cells and even that those exist in the heart is old news. The only news here is that this is a step towards identifying them more efficiently/effectively (which would help as alluded to in my point #1). It's an important step, but an incremental one and I don't think it merited a Slashdot story - I agree with you that it's not that big of a deal.

    2. Re:what exactly is the news here? by Doctor+Beavis · · Score: 5, Informative

      Sort of. The news that there are cells in the heart that can impact repair was news - in 2003, as the article mentioned. This story was that they have gotten better at identifying where those cells are. An important step, but not as important as the 2003 step was.