Politics
Wednesday November 8, 2006
See today's LifeSiteNews stories
Adult Stem Cells Used to Treat Emergency Heart Attack Patients
By Gudrun Schultz
LONDON, United Kingdom, November 8, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Heart attack victims will receive stem cell treatment using cells taken from their own bone marrow, in a breakthrough new technique scheduled to begin trials January in two London hospitals, the Daily Mail reported yesterday.
In research being carried out at University College London Hospital and Barts and the London NHS, Patients suffering a heart attack will undergo regular treatment of an angioplasty to remove blockage to an artery, and then will receive an injection into the artery of stem cells harvested from the bone marrow in their hip, under local anesthetic. The whole procedure will take place within five hours of their attack.
The treatment has shown remarkable success in growing heart tissue, in trials in other countries. Doctors hope the technique will lead to repairing damaged heart muscles and preventing further attacks and the development of heart failure.
Only patients who sign a consent form will receive the experimental therapy, headed up by Professor John Martin of the British Heart Foundation and Dr. Anthony Mathur of Barts and the London NHS trust.
“This is the first time in the world that stem cells have been used to stop the damage of acute heart attack,” Professor Martin told the Daily Mail. “It is very exciting. We feel we can make a considerable reduction in deaths and suffering from heart failure.”
The use of adult stem cells or of cells harvested from umbilical cord blood shortly after the birth of a baby have been used successfully to treat multiple conditions, including spinal injury and blindness.
“Because the cells are taken from the patient themselves there are minimal ethical issues surrounding this procedure,” Dr. Mathur said. “There is also less likelihood of rejection complications.”
Stem cell research using human embryonic stem cells, which destroys the embryos, has had no success in treating any disease or disorder despite massive funding support internationally.
This is the second major discovery in non-embryonic stem cell research reported by the Daily Mail in the past two weeks. Last month, a group of British scientists were successful in growing the world’s first artificial human liver, using stem cells obtained from umbilical cord blood.
Read Daily Mail coverage:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/health...
See related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Human Liver Grown from Cord Blood Stem Cells--Media Ignores UK Breakthrough
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/06110105.html
Back to TopSHARE THIS STORY: E-mail Print Newsvine Digg Reddit Del.icio.us Facebook
Latest Headlines
- Abortion-Politician-Communion Scandal Shows Real Lack of Pastoral Concern - Editorial
- British MPs Defeat all Pro-Life Provisions in the HFE Bill
- "Women Should Have the Right to Choose" says Head of UK Parliamentary Pro-Life Group
- No Comment from Bishops as Cherie wife for Former PM Blair Touts Catholicism While Extolling Contraception
- F.D.A. Delays Human Trials of Embyonic Stem Cell Research Treatment
- Abortion Most Prevalent Among Women Aged 20 to 24 – Statistics Canada
- MP Calls Canadian Government Defense of Human Rights Subsection 13(1) "absolutely shocking"
- Late Term Aborted Babies in UK Left to "Gasp for Breath" Until Death
- French Government Seeks "Universal Decriminalization" of Sodomy
Most Read this Week
- Texas Pastor Resigns After Involvement in Gay Porn Site Exposed
- Late Term Aborted Babies in UK Left to "Gasp for Breath" Until Death
- Governor Schwarzenegger Vows to Fight Reinstatement of Traditional Marriage
- California Supreme Court Imposes Homosexual 'Marriage' on State
- Anglican Acceptance of both Abortion and Sanctity of Life will Allow the Creation of a Gay Church: Gene Robinson
- Ontario Forces Taxpayers to Pay for “Sex-Change” Operations
- Pro-Abortion Expression Permitted, Pro-Life Forbidden on Campus at Australia University
- State Funded Homosexual Youth Event Encourages Children to Display Homosexual Acts
- California Supreme Court Asked to Stay "Gay Marriage" Order until November Public Ballot
- Analysis: Ontario Human Rights Code Being Used to Beat Christianity out of the Public Square
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any Internet re-publishing of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews that have come from other news sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.