Stem Cells Hold Hope in Combating Angina
Treatment may help restore blood flow when other methods fail

(HealthDay News) -- An investigative technique that uses stem cells may offer hope to people who can't get relief from the severe pain of blocked heart arteries with conventional treatments such as angioplasty or bypass surgery.

Dutch physicians found that injecting bone marrow cells -- a kind of stem cell -- into the heart's muscular wall restored blood flow.

"I think this is very good news for patients who are at the end of the line and have no options left," Dr. Douwe E. Atsma, a cardiologist at Leiden University Medical Center and an author of the study, told HealthDay.

According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, stem cells can develop into different types of cells in the body. They also can be an internal repair system, dividing to replenish other cells. When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential to remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell or a brain cell.

The Dutch study had 50 participants, including 43 men who were suffering from the severe chest pain called angina because of blockages in heart arteries. All had undergone artery-opening procedures, such as angioplasty or bypass surgery, to restore blood flow, but those treatments had not helped, Atsma said.

Angina occurs when the heart muscle is not getting enough blood because of a buildup of plaque in the arteries, according to NIH. The pain might feel like pressure or squeezing in the chest, or it might occur in the shoulders, arms, neck, jaw or back.

In the study, half of the participants were given injections of cells taken from their own bone marrow, and the others received injections of inactive cells.

After three months, the responses were varied, with some participants reporting total relief, and others feeling a bit better.

"The most important thing is that the amount of ischemia [artery blockage] was halved" in those given the marrow cells, Atsma said. "The amount of tissue with ischemia was reduced, heart function improved significantly in a small way and their grades of quality of life were higher."

The results were so good, Atsma said, that the participants who had gotten the dummy injections have since been given bone marrow cell therapy.

Bone marrow cell injections help restore blood flow by promoting the creation of new blood vessels, Atsma said, but it's not clear how this happens.

Whatever the reason for the benefit, "we are fairly enthusiastic, considering that these patients had no alternative," Atsma said. "They had all the surgery and angioplasty they could have."

The U.S. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute says that the cause for blocked arteries isn't known, but some traits, conditions or habits can raise risk.

Some of those risk factors can be controlled -- such as lack of physical activity, smoking and an unhealthy diet. But others cannot be controlled, including age and a family history of heart disease.

On the Web

To learn more about angina, visit the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

SOURCES: HealthDay News; Douwe E. Atsma, M.D., Ph.D., interventional cardiologist, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands; May 20, 2009, Journal of the American Medical Association; U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (www.nhlbi.nih.gov); Stem Cell Information Center, U.S. National Institutes of Health (stemcells.nih.gov)
Author: Dennis Thompson
Publication Date: May 31, 2010
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