Friday, July 4, 2014

Fat cells removed from heart attack patients could be re-injected into their chest to help repair the organ, scientists say

Fat cells removed from heart attack patients could be re-injected into their chest to help repair the organ, scientists say


Fat removed from a heart attack patient during cardiac surgery could be re-injected into their chest to lower the risk of repeat problems, research suggests.
Scientists think that stem cells in fatty tissue could be extracted and inserted directly into the heart, reducing the chance of future attacks.
The stem cells - ‘blank’ cells capable of acting as a repair kit for the body by replacing worn-out tissue - can improve the functioning of the heart and strengthen crucial arteries and veins, the researchers found.
Usually most of the fat that is found during open heart surgery is removed and then discarded.
Scientists believe fat removed from a heart attack patient during cardiac surgery could be re-injected into their chest to lower the risk of repeat problems. Stock image
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Scientists believe fat removed from a heart attack patient during cardiac surgery could be re-injected into their chest to lower the risk of repeat problems. Stock image
But the new study suggests that the fat could be retained and the useful stem cells isolated and injected back into the heart - all while the patient is still on the operating table.
Canadian cardiologist Dr Ganghong Tian, who will present his findings at a European Society of Cardiology conference in Barcelona tomorrow (Sunday), said: ‘During cardiac surgery fat tissue may need to be removed from patients to expose the heart.
‘We were intrigued to find out whether this mediastinal fat, which would otherwise be discarded, contained stem cells that could be injected back into the heart before closing the chest.

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‘The idea was to improve heart function after a heart attack or heart failure.’
The research team collected fatty tissue from the chests of 24 patients during cardiac surgery.
Dr Tian, of the National Research Council in Canada, found that it was relatively simple using standard scientific techniques to isolate a significant number of the useful stem cells from the tissue.
At the moment the process takes several hours, but he hopes in the future it could be done much more quickly, allowing the whole procedure to be done in one operation.
He said: ‘Our method converts useless tissue into a treatment. Using a patient’s own tissue avoids the possibility of their immune system rejecting the stem cells.
Researcher Dr Ganghong Tian said: 'This raises the exciting possibility of using a patient's own stem cells, isolated from waste tissue during cardiac surgery, to improve their heart function.' Pictured is a computer generated image of a heart attack
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Researcher Dr Ganghong Tian said: 'This raises the exciting possibility of using a patient's own stem cells, isolated from waste tissue during cardiac surgery, to improve their heart function.' Pictured is a computer generated image of a heart attack
‘These cells have been shown to improve cardiac function, reduce myocardial infarct size and increase the regeneration of new blood vessels.
‘But obtaining these from a patient undergoing cardiac surgery requires pre-surgery to collect adipose tissue from the subcutaneous region.
‘The beauty of using mediastinal adipose tissue is that there is no need for another surgical procedure.’
Dr Tian’s team has not yet tried to reinsert the stem cells back into a human patient.
But their experiments on rats has shown promising results.
They inserted stem cells removed from fat into the hearts of 13 rats suffering from heart failure.
Five other rats received a saline solution with no stem cells.
After six weeks the rats which had received the stem cells showed much further recovery of the heart than those which had received the saline control.
Dr Tian said: ‘This raises the exciting possibility of using a patient’s own stem cells, isolated from waste tissue during cardiac surgery, to improve their heart function.’

He added: ‘The next stage of our research is to extend the recovery period beyond 6 weeks to see whether these stem cells can provide long-term improvement in cardiac function.’

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