An experimental therapy using the body’s bone marrow stem cells to repair damage done to cardiac tissue and blood vessels in a heart attack does not appear to work, German researchers reported Tuesday.
The study from Technische Universitat in Munich involved a growth protein called granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, which brings the body’s bone marrow stem cells into play.
The authors said there is increasing evidence that stem cells can contribute to regeneration of cardiac tissue and the development of new blood vessels following a heart attack.
But a study involving 114 heart attack victims found that the stem cell stimulating substance had “no influence” on the size of the area of damage to the heart, how well the heart pumped or on keeping blood vessels from narrowing again.
The patients in the study were given either the substance or an inert placebo for five days following a heart attack.
The study was published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association along with an editorial from Robert Kloner, a physician at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, who said the therapy in question remains experimental and has “yet to be proven in large, long-term multicenter trials ... .”
While some may be disappointed with the German study, he said, “this investigation is one of the first, controlled, larger, and more carefully designed studies to assess the effect of an attempt to recruit stem cells” for heart attack repair.
“Additional large, carefully designed trials are needed to assess the true potential (or possibly lack of potential) of stem cell therapy,” he added.