By DPA
Hamburg : Scientists in Germany may have reached a breakthrough for the many patients who survive a heart attack only to have their attack-weakened hearts give out afterward.
Transplants of genetically engineered (GE) cells could help reduce the risk of sudden death after a heart attack, their research shows.
Working with mice, the scientists found that transplanting embryo cells called cardiomyocites into heart tissue can help prevent a fatal type of rapid heart beat called ventricular tachycardia (VT).
The key active ingredient in these cells was a protein called connexin 43 (Cx43).
When another type of cell, available from human adult muscle, was genetically engineered to produce the protein, it gained the same ability to repair the heart.
Doctors previously have tried using implants of these stem cells – skeletal myoblasts (SMs) – to prevent VT in humans, without success. Normally, the cells never fully develop into heart cells to replace those destroyed by the heart attack.
The new research, led by Bernd Fleischmann from the University of Bonn, holds out the hope of using a patient’s own muscle stem cells to prevent fatal arrhythmia after a heart attack.
Fleischmann and his colleagues wrote in the journal Nature: “Because … protection is achieved with relatively small numbers of engrafting cells, transplantation of SMs in combination with Cx43 gene transfer represents a promising therapeutic strategy.”