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HEART MYOBLAST CELL INJECTION

A new heart attack treatment uses myoblast cells from different parts of the body to regenerate damaged heart muscle. Doctors have shown how they can regenerate parts of a heart that have been destroyed by a heart attack. The cells for this heart attack treatment come from the patient’s own thigh muscles.
This new heart attack treatment has the potential to be a huge advance in cardiology.
It used to be that once a piece of heart died after a heart attack, it couldn’t be brought back.

But with this newly developed heart attack treatment, that’s changing.
“Hearing I had congestive failure I was obviously very concerned, because I realized the long term prognosis with congestive failure is not very good,” says Samuel Cohen, a 62 year old heart attack victim. He thought his weakened heart as a result of a heart attack couldn’t be fixed.
But today, thanks to the new heart attack treatment, Samuel is showing no signs of slowing down.
He was one of the first patients at the Arizona Heart Institute in Phoenix to receive a newly developed heart attack treatment. Almost three years ago, doctors successfully transplanted muscle cells called myoblasts from his thigh into his heart. These myoblasts are very young muscle cells, and they have the potential to become other types of muscle cells.
Heart muscle does not have myoblasts, so it can’t regenerate. But the key to the new heart attack treatment is that skeletal muscle, the muscle on our body, our arms, and legs, does have myoblasts.
After the myoblasts were cultured in the lab and grown, they were injected into the hearts of patients who had severe heart failure due to a heart attack. While the study was designed to only demonstrate the safety of the procedure, but it also provided incredible evidence in support of the new heart attack treatment. Doctors observed new tissue formation, and marked improvement in the heart function of the patients.
The lead researcher at the Arizona Heart Institute, Nabil Dib, says, “Through this heart attack treatment we can regenerate a scar tissue caused by a heart attack, which is the opposite of what we learnt in medical school.”
This is just the first phase of studies; further research will need to be done on more patients to confirm the ability of these myoblast injections to actually cause better heart function.
The information from moving images provides clear evidence in support of this heart attack treatment procedure, showing that the heart can contract and pump much better three months after getting the injection.
The findings have even the conservative researchers optimistic. “In the future the way we are going to treat heart attack patients will definitely be different,” says Dr. Dib.
While the heart attack treatment procedure was performed on 24 patients during bypass surgery, with the chest open, two patients at the Arizona Heart Institute now have had the myoblast transplantation performed with the chest closed. The cells are delivered through a catheter into the heart using 3D mapping to determine the precise location of the target area.
“Using a catheter we can perform the heart attack treatment procedure on patients who have had heart failure and are not in a position to undergo bypass surgery,” says Dr. Dib.
The use of myoblasts is an exciting breakthrough, one that could give serious heart attack patients, like Samuel a fighting chance.
Samuel Cohen couldn’t be more thankful. “This heart attack treatment procedure is amazing. It restores my hope in the belief that I can lead a normal, healthy life.”

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