Thaindian News

Washington, June 30 (IANS) Bone marrow extract is just as effective as bone marrow stem cells for improving cardiac function, particularly after a heart attack, according to a group of researchers.
Heart failure occurs when cardiac muscle is damaged and scar tissue replaces beating cardiomyocytes (cardiac muscle cells). As a scar replaces healthy tissue, it causes the heart to enlarge and lose its pumping capacity.

The studies were done on mice using a novel stem cell delivery method, developed by University of California - San Francisco (UCSF) researchers, to show that bone marrow cells’ extract is as beneficial to cardiac function as are intact, whole cells.

Both the cell and cell extract therapies resulted in the presence of more blood vessels and less cardiac cell death.

“The exact mechanism for this is not yet clear. Our results confirm that whole cells are not necessarily required in order to see the beneficial effects of bone marrow cell therapy,” said Yerem Yeghiazarians, study author and director of UCSF’s

translational cardiac stem cell development program.

UCSF researchers are investigating these new therapies to improve cardiac function after heart attack in an effort to prevent heart failure, said a UCSF release.

These findings were published online and will appear in the July issue of the Journal of Molecular Therapy.