A joint project involving researchers from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM),  the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research and the Julius Wolff Institute has made a discovery that improves cardiac stem cells recovery after a heart attack.

The researchers discovered that cardiac stem cells recovery rates can be improved by using a low-intensity pulsed ultrasound treatment. The stem cells perform continuing modifications and repair to the damage done to the heart after a heart attack — at a faster rate.

After a person has suffered a heart attack, they lose some cardiac muscle tissue. That tissue is replaced by scar tissue and the heart never fully regains the function it had previously. Scientists have been performing experiments that harness cardiac stem cells to regenerate muscle tissue — however the stem cells are fairly limited in what they can do.

Scientists have used a number of techniques to improve the capacity of cardiac stem cells to regenerate cardiac tissue. This is the latest in a number of techniques and has shown very positive results so far.

Dr. Aurora Bernal came up with the idea for using ultrasound therapies to improve cardiac stem cells recovery and tissue regeneration. This type of treatment is already used to increase the rates of cell differentiation and cellular reorganisation in other treatments.

The scientists used cardiac stem cells from humans and mice to test the effect of ultrasound treatments. The cells were immediately more mobile and active. Researchers discovered the change occurs after a biochemical signal responding to the ultrasound treatment triggers proteins linked to cell adhesion.

These results give researchers hope that cardiac stem cells recovery can be increased and the damage from heart attacks can be completely reversed.

Source: Ultrasound-based Therapy for Cardiac Stem Cells Recovery

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