Can man’s best friend lead the way in cardiac research.
Researchers at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the NY College of Medicine have shown that dogs injected with stem cells can heal their hearts after the block of one of the arteries that transports blood to the heart. If arteries supplying the heart are blocked they cause a lack of oxygen to the heart muscles and this leads to the tissue damage and death this tissue, this is also known as a myocardial infarct and is one of the leading causes of heart disease.
Using canine stem cells, more specifically cardiac stem cell this study has shown that repair of the damage caused by a myocardial infarct is reversible. By occluding the left coronary artery to induce tissue damage (which seems “slightly” un-ethical) and then injecting cardiac stem cells adjacent to myocardial infarct, the study observed marked improvement of function and repair of the damaged tissue. These stem cells were selected on specific markers that are found in stem cells, after selection these stem cells were grown and then injected.
This is an exciting area of research that can bring about great amounts of insight not only into stem cells but also into the treatment myocardial infarcts after they have occurred.
Primary Source
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1157041&blobtype=pdf
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