More Stem Cell Heart Therapy
EurekAlert reports on the latest human trial for a first generation adult stem cell therapy. "Patients with severe congestive heart failure who had exhausted all other treatment options showed markedly improved heart function following a procedure in which their own stem cells were deployed directly into the heart by way of four tiny incisions in the chest ... All 15 of the patients who received stem cell injections had some degree of improvement, some with dramatic results." Scientists are still unsure of the precise mechanisms by which this type of stem cell therapy works, but it is certainly effective. Given the enormous number of people who die each and every day from varieties of heart disease, progress can't come soon enough.
Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-01/uopm-sc012405.php