UM Researchers Launch Stem Cell Study on Heart Patients

1/15/2008

Researchers at the University of Miami are now recruiting patients with heart failure to take part in a clinical trial using stem cells. Joshua Hare, M.D., F.A.C.G., chief of the Division of Cardiology and director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute, won approval from the FDA in August, to use autologous mesenchymal stem cells cultured in labs, to treat patients with heart failure.

The Phase I clinical trial, which is funded by the NIH, will enroll 45 patients who are scheduled to undergo cardiac surgery and already have a damaged heart. Those patients will receive the stem cells during surgery at either the University of Miami Hospital, the VA Medical Center or Jackson Memorial Hospital.

"The implications for this kind of therapy are enormous when you consider nearly five million Americans suffer from heart failure, and 500,000 new cases are diagnosed each year," said Dr. Hare. Heart failure, or congestive heart failure, can be a life-threatening condition in which the heart can no longer pump enough blood to the rest of the body. This trial, which is also being conducted at Johns Hopkins University, will be the first time that this type of stem cell is being used in patients with heart failure.

Earlier this year, Dr. Hare released the results of the first clinical trial using the same type of stem cells on heart attack patients. The results of that study showed the patients treated with stem cells had lower rates of side effects such as cardiac arrhythmias, and had significant improvements in heart, lung and global function. The benefit of using autologous mesenchymal stem cells is they can be taken from genetically distinct donors, are easy to prepare and tend to collect within injured areas.

If you are interested in the study, call 305-243-9106 or 305-243-7181.