Stem Cells Heal Hearts

[Angel]

It's always a hot topic, the potential of stem cells to heal what ails us. Well, stem cells are in the spotlight again to see if they can repair damage after a heart attack. Here's why that could be great news for the more than 1 million Americans who suffer a heart attack every year.

The pulpit is Rev. Mr. Eugene Carter's home away from home. "I start the day being thankful for the day and realizing it is a blessing," he says.

Last February, Carter needed his faith when he had a heart attack. He says, "I believe that anything that comes my way is there for a reason." So when doctors asked him to be in a study on stem cells just days after his heart attack, he said yes.

"The promise of stem cells is the promise that these cells could be given to grow new parts of the body that have been damaged," Gary Schaer, M.D., an interventional cardiologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, tells Ivanhoe.

Dr. Schaer and colleagues are giving heart attack patients stem cells from a healthy adult donor. The cells are delivered through an IV. Once infused, they zero in on damaged heart muscle and repair it. Stem cells have shown great promise in fixing damaged heart muscle in pigs.

"I have been doing this for a little more than 20 years, and this is the most exciting new development in a very exciting field," Dr. Schaer says. Studies have shown using a patient's own stem cells can treat heart failure. He says using a donor's stem cells to treat heart attacks is a new frontier.

Carter feels lucky to be part of the study. "What an opportunity to do something positive," he says, and if the treatment helps, he'll have even more to preach about.

The benefits of donor stem cells are they're available right away, and one donor's cells can be multiplied into millions of stem cells to treat an endless number of people. In this study, the same donor's cells are treating all 52 patients at 16 sites across the country.