Cardiac stem cells rejuvenate rats’ aging hearts, study says – CNN
By NEVAGiles23
The old rats appeared newly invigorated after receiving their injections. As hoped, the cardiac stem cells improved heart function yet also provided additional benefits. The rats' fur fur, shaved for surgery, grew back more quickly than expected, and their chromosomal telomeres, which commonly shrink with age, lengthened.
The old rats receiving the cardiac stem cells also had increased stamina overall, exercising more than before the infusion.
"It's extremely exciting," said Dr. Eduardo Marbn, primary investigator on the research and director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. Witnessing "the systemic rejuvenating effects," he said, "it's kind of like an unexpected fountain of youth."
"We've been studying new forms of cell therapy for the heart for some 12 years now," Marbn said.
Some of this research has focused on cardiosphere-derived cells.
"They're progenitor cells from the heart itself," Marbn said. Progenitor cells are generated from stem cells and share some, but not all, of the same properties. For instance, they can differentiate into more than one kind of cell like stem cells, but unlike stem cells, progenitor cells cannot divide and reproduce indefinitely.
Since heart failure with preserved ejection fraction is similar to aging, Marbn decided to experiment on old rats, ones that suffered from a type of heart problem "that's very typical of what we find in older human beings: The heart's stiff, and it doesn't relax right, and it causes fluid to back up some," Marbn explained.
He and his team injected cardiosphere-derived cells from newborn rats into the hearts of 22-month-old rats -- that's elderly for a rat. Similar old rats received a placebo injection of saline solution. Then, Marbn and his team compared both groups to young rats that were 4 months old. After a month, they compared the rats again.
Even though the cells were injected into the heart, their effects were noticeable throughout the body, Marbn said
"The animals could exercise further than they could before by about 20%, and one of the most striking things, especially for me (because I'm kind of losing my hair) the animals ... regrew their fur a lot better after they'd gotten cells" compared with the placebo rats, Marbn said.
The rats that received cardiosphere-derived cells also experienced improved heart function and showed longer heart cell telomeres.
Why did it work?
The working hypothesis is that the cells secrete exosomes, tiny vesicles that "contain a lot of nucleic acids, things like RNA, that can change patterns of the way the tissue responds to injury and the way genes are expressed in the tissue," Marbn said.
It is the exosomes that act on the heart and make it better as well as mediating long-distance effects on exercise capacity and hair regrowth, he explained.
Looking to the future, Marbn said he's begun to explore delivering the cardiac stem cells intravenously in a simple infusion -- instead of injecting them directly into the heart, which would be a complex procedure for a human patient -- and seeing whether the same beneficial effects occur.
Dr. Gary Gerstenblith, a professor of medicine in the cardiology division of Johns Hopkins Medicine, said the new study is "very comprehensive."
"Striking benefits are demonstrated not only from a cardiac perspective but across multiple organ systems," said Gerstenblith, who did not contribute to the new research. "The results suggest that stem cell therapies should be studied as an additional therapeutic option in the treatment of cardiac and other diseases common in the elderly."
Todd Herron, director of the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center's Cardiovascular Regeneration Core Laboratory, said Marbn, with his previous work with cardiac stem cells, has "led the field in this area."
"The novelty of this bit of work is, they started to look at more precise molecular mechanisms to explain the phenomenon they've seen in the past," said Herron, who played no role in the new research.
One strength of the approach here is that the researchers have taken cells "from the organ that they want to rejuvenate, so that makes it likely that the cells stay there in that tissue," Herron said.
He believes that more extensive study, beginning with larger animals and including long-term followup, is needed before this technique could be used in humans.
"We need to make sure there's no harm being done," Herron said, adding that extending the lifetime and improving quality of life amounts to "a tradeoff between the potential risk and the potential good that can be done."
Capicor hasn't announced any plans to do studies in aging, but the possibility exists.
After all, the cells have been proven "completely safe" in "over 100 human patients," so it would be possible to fast-track them into the clinic, Marbn explained: "I can't tell you that there are any plans to do that, but it could easily be done from a safety viewpoint."
Read more:
Cardiac stem cells rejuvenate rats' aging hearts, study says - CNN
- 001 Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2011] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2011]
- 002 Wow! UW Research labs [Last Updated On: June 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: June 25th, 2011]
- 003 cellalign [Last Updated On: June 28th, 2011] [Originally Added On: June 28th, 2011]
- 004 Cardiac Stem Cells in End-Stage Human Failing Hearts: Are they functional? [Last Updated On: August 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: August 25th, 2011]
- 005 Designer Life: repair brain, heart with stem cells - Future Health keynote speaker [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 006 Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy at Rostock University [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 007 Stem Cells: Mending a broken heart? [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 008 Cardiovascular Derivatives of Embryonic Stem Cells in Cardiac Repair and Drug Discovery [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 009 Stem Cell Therapy in Cardiac Disease [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 010 Cardiac Recovery Points to Adult Stem Cells [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 011 Oral Surgeon utilizes StemSave to preserve stem cells in wisdom teeth to combat cardiac disease [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 012 Stem Cells and Cardiac Regeneration [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 013 Dr Victor Dzau on Stem Cells for Cardiac Repair. [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 014 Cardiomyogenic differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem cells (KUM2/9-15c) [Last Updated On: September 4th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 4th, 2011]
- 015 Heart Failure Patient After Adult Stem Cell Therapy [Last Updated On: September 5th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 5th, 2011]
- 016 Stem Cell operation in Cardiac Surgery-Al-Jazeerah [Last Updated On: September 7th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 7th, 2011]
- 017 Heart Disease Patient Describes His Stem Cell Treatment [Last Updated On: September 9th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 9th, 2011]
- 018 Cardiovascular Therapies: Spotlight on Stem Cell Research - Douglas Boyd [Last Updated On: September 16th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 16th, 2011]
- 019 Adult Stem Cell [Last Updated On: September 20th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 20th, 2011]
- 020 Heart repair using own stem cells after heart attack: Future Health keynote speaker [Last Updated On: September 20th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 20th, 2011]
- 021 Stem Cell #8 Vas Cath Removal 04/28/11 [Last Updated On: September 20th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 20th, 2011]
- 022 Adult Stem Cells Used To Rebuild Heart Tissue Video. More at http://www.stemcellfusion.com [Last Updated On: September 20th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 20th, 2011]
- 023 Davos Question: Stem Cell Answer [Last Updated On: September 22nd, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 22nd, 2011]
- 024 Did you have a Heart Attack and Need to Recover your Cardiac Muscle? [Last Updated On: September 22nd, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 22nd, 2011]
- 025 Cardiac Tissue Can Regenerate [Last Updated On: September 22nd, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 22nd, 2011]
- 026 William F. Testimonial of Treatment Stem Cell [Last Updated On: September 23rd, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 23rd, 2011]
- 027 Stem Cell Heart Surgery must see [Last Updated On: September 24th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 24th, 2011]
- 028 Valentine's Day Stem Cell Wish: Mending Broken Hearts [Last Updated On: September 24th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 24th, 2011]
- 029 Advanced Cell Technology OneMedForum 2011 [Last Updated On: September 24th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 24th, 2011]
- 030 Human 2.0: The Helix of Our Future [Last Updated On: September 24th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 24th, 2011]
- 031 heart cell generation from human ES and iPS cells (embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells).flv [Last Updated On: September 24th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 24th, 2011]
- 032 Stem Cell Therapy and Stem Cell Treatment with Dell [Last Updated On: September 24th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 24th, 2011]
- 033 UCD Med Student Receives Fulbright Award [Last Updated On: September 24th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 24th, 2011]
- 034 Cardiomyocytes derived from mouse Embryonic stem cells [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 035 Immune Control of Stem Cell Mobilization [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 036 Better Drugs Through Stem Cells [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 037 stem cell derived cardiomyocytes [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 038 Stem Cells: Heart cells grown from mouse stem cells [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 039 Patel Stem Cell Heart Failure [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 040 Turning Adult Stem Cells into Medicine - Zannos Grekos, MD [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 041 Kevin's 2 Heart Transplants and Stem Cell Transplant [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 042 Breakthrough in Stem cell technology [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2011]
- 043 Affordable Stem Cell Therapy in Guatemala (2hrs from Miami) [Last Updated On: September 26th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 26th, 2011]
- 044 Cadiomyogenesis of human mesenchymal stem cells [Last Updated On: September 26th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 26th, 2011]
- 045 Mark Mercola: Differentiating embryonic stem cells into adult tissues [Last Updated On: September 26th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 26th, 2011]
- 046 Cardiomyocytic differentiation of endometrial stem cells. [Last Updated On: September 26th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 26th, 2011]
- 047 Adult Stem Cell vs Embryonic Stem Cell Research Ethics Video [Last Updated On: September 26th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 26th, 2011]
- 048 Pt. 1--Dr. Ali Denktas--Stem Cells as Markers after Myocardial Infarctions [Last Updated On: September 27th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 27th, 2011]
- 049 Repairing Damaged Hearts with Stem Cells [Last Updated On: September 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 29th, 2011]
- 050 Mouse GEN cells overexpressing Csx/Nkx2.5 and GATA4 behave like transient amplifying cells [Last Updated On: September 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 29th, 2011]
- 051 20100804_axiogenesis.wmv [Last Updated On: September 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 29th, 2011]
- 052 Beating Cardiomyocytes from E14 Cells [Last Updated On: September 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 29th, 2011]
- 053 Heart cells grown from human embryonic stem cells [Last Updated On: September 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 29th, 2011]
- 054 First US Patient In Stem Cell Transplant [Last Updated On: September 29th, 2011] [Originally Added On: September 29th, 2011]
- 055 Be still my beating stem cell heart [Last Updated On: October 1st, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 1st, 2011]
- 056 Beating Human Heart Cells from Embryonic Stem Cells [Last Updated On: October 1st, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 1st, 2011]
- 057 Spontaneously and rhythmically beating engineered human heart tissue from pluripotent stem cells [Last Updated On: October 3rd, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 3rd, 2011]
- 058 Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy - How it works [Last Updated On: October 3rd, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 3rd, 2011]
- 059 Doctors To Use 'Trained' Stem Cells To Heal Heart [Last Updated On: October 5th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 5th, 2011]
- 060 Beating Heart Stem Cells [Last Updated On: October 5th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 5th, 2011]
- 061 AM RADIO, DR. AMIT PATEL AND STEM CELLS SAVED MY LIFE - Video [Last Updated On: October 14th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 14th, 2011]
- 062 New heart built with stem cells - Video [Last Updated On: October 15th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 15th, 2011]
- 063 Adult Stem Cells For Heart Disease: Today's Reality - Video [Last Updated On: October 15th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 15th, 2011]
- 064 H9 beating stem cells - Video [Last Updated On: October 27th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- 065 Double Blind Trial of Stem Cells for Heart Failure - Video [Last Updated On: October 27th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- 066 Repairing Damaged Hearts with Stem Cells - Video [Last Updated On: October 27th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- 067 Cardiac differentiation of hES cells at 20x - Video [Last Updated On: October 27th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2011]
- 068 SPRAY-ON STEM CELLS - Video [Last Updated On: October 28th, 2011] [Originally Added On: October 28th, 2011]
- 069 Stem Cells: A smart use for wisdom teeth - Video [Last Updated On: November 12th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 12th, 2011]
- 070 VistaGen's Stem Cell Derived Cardiomyocytes - Video [Last Updated On: November 12th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 12th, 2011]
- 071 Stem Cell Research [Last Updated On: November 12th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 12th, 2011]
- 072 The Power of Stem Cells - Video [Last Updated On: November 12th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 12th, 2011]
- 073 Beating iCellĀ® Cardiomyocytes - Video [Last Updated On: November 13th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 13th, 2011]
- 074 SCIPIO: Cardiac stem cells and postinfarction heart failure - Video [Last Updated On: November 15th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 15th, 2011]
- 075 Beating Cardiomyocytes in Cell Culture - Video [Last Updated On: November 15th, 2011] [Originally Added On: November 15th, 2011]
- 076 Stem Cells Heal Heart Attack Damage. - Video [Last Updated On: December 7th, 2011] [Originally Added On: December 7th, 2011]
- 077 C2CAM - 2011.11.15 - Dulce Base - Regenerative Medicine - Info - Video [Last Updated On: December 7th, 2011] [Originally Added On: December 7th, 2011]
- 078 Latest Update on Stem Cell Research at UW - Dr. Timothy Kamp - Video [Last Updated On: December 7th, 2011] [Originally Added On: December 7th, 2011]
- 079 Coast To Coast AM: Regenerative Medicine / Dulce Base 11-15-2011 Download Link - Video [Last Updated On: December 7th, 2011] [Originally Added On: December 7th, 2011]
- 080 C2CAM - 2011.11.15 - Dulce Base - Regenerative Medicine - Video [Last Updated On: December 7th, 2011] [Originally Added On: December 7th, 2011]
