The human body is a remarkable machine.  It has the capacity to regenerate itself, with organs including the skin, the liver, and kidneys being capable of repairing themselves in a short amount of time.

The capacity for cellular regeneration comes from stem cells.  They are the tiny multicellular organisms that are responsible for forming the cells in the human body.  They can form everything from nerve cells through to skin cells and lung cells.

Unfortunately, some organs aren’t capable of producing or using stem cells effectively.  One of those organs is the heart.  When the heart is damaged by disease or injury, it cannot produce enough stem cells to heal itself effectively.

This is a particularly serious problem for people who suffer from a heart attack as their heart never fully recovers.  The organ becomes permanently weaker, which can lead to congestive heart failure.

As a result, the only option for patients with heart failure is to receive a heart transplant.  This is a very complex procedure and requires a suitable donor heart, which is often hard to find.  There are already thousands of people around the world waiting for heart transplants.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge’s Stem Cell Institute in the United Kingdom have just developed a new treatment that may be able help the heart heal.  It is a stem cell patch that can be used to grow heart muscle cells in the laboratory.  The mature heart muscle cells can then be applied to the heart, restoring its proper function.

Their stem cell patch is very different to previous stem cell treatments aimed at helping heart tissue regenerate.  Previous treatments used injections of stem cells either directly into the heart or into the blood stream.  However, the results of these treatments have been mixed.

Each stem cell patch is 2.5 centimetres square, which is big enough to hold millions of cells.  The cells can be grown quickly also, with each stem cell patch being capable of producing heart muscle cells in a matter of weeks.  Researchers are working on a technique to attach the stem cell patch directly to the heart when it contains enough heart muscle cells, restoring heart function.

Source: A Stem Cell Patch Could Heal Hearts Damaged By Cardiac Arrest

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