Scientists improve survival rate of transplanted cardiac cells

Scientists in Japan developed a method using human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells that improves the survival rate of transplanted cardiac muscle cells, a finding that could eventually be used to treat heart attack victims, local media reported Thursday.

The researchers from Kyoto University's Center for iPS Cell Research and Application and other institutions produced human iPS cell-derived cardiac tissue sheets containing both cardiac muscle cells, known as cardiomyocytes and vascular cells, the Asahi Shimbun reported.

They transplanted the engineered cardiac sheets into the hearts of mice that suffered myocardial infarction, or a heart attack, and found that the transplanted cells had a higher survival rate than that for cardiomyocytes produced under conventional techniques.

"The new technology would be useful in the future in treating patients whose cardiomyocytes are largely lost," one of the team members said.

The team's findings were published in the British scientific journal Scientific Reports on Oct 22.

Although studies on transplantation of iPS cell-derived cardiomyocytes are still in the basic research stage, the treatment has proved effective in animal experiments.

But these positive results are believed to simply mean that the cardiomyocytes' function of promoting the production of blood vessels helps to heal damaged cells in the body.

In fact, most of transplanted cardiomyocytes created under existing techniques died shortly after transplantation, according to the researchers.