Stem Cells and Cardioregenerative Medicine

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The heart was considered a non-regenerating organ until recently. The theory held that if the contracting heart muscle was damaged or destroyed by disease processes such as a myocardial infarction (heart attack), that a piece of functioning heart muscle was lost forever, with a fibrous noncontracting scar replacing the muscle. New information suggests that stem cells may by hiding in the heart and capable of repairing damaged heart muscle. This breakthrough in understanding heart biology has lead to a revolutionary new field of cardioregenerative medicine. Powerful new approaches to supplement and harness the heart’s own ability for repair are being investigated, including the transplantation of various types of stem cells to diseased hearts, and interventions to optimize native heart repair.

A remarkable, growing team of UW Cardiovascular Research Center faculty is working to overcome the difficult biological, clinical, and regulatory hurdles to bring previously unimaginable new therapies for heart disease. Research is taking a number of different avenues to optimize cardiac repair, utilizing a broad-based interdisciplinary approach. Basic research studies have shown that human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells can form various types of cardiomyocytes in a Petri dish that could be used for cardiac repair. Studies optimizing the conditions for growing heart cells in culture are already underway.

Preclinical studies in animal models of heart have demonstrated that transplanted stem cells can generate the three major cell types needed for optimal heart repair-- cardiomyocytes (heart muscle); vascular smooth muscle (which form the walls of blood vessels); and endothelial cells (cells that line the interior surfaces of blood vessels in the heart and circulatory system). Researchers have provided novel insights into the role of stem cells actually fusing with native heart cells to promote repair. They have also isolated stem cells directly from animal hearts and have purified these cardiac stem cells to test their ability to augment cardiac repair.

At the clinical level, an ongoing clinical trial studies cell therapy for patients on maximum treatment for advanced coronary artery disease who are still suffering from angina. Scholarly work also focuses on understanding and improving the complex regulatory process for cellular therapies for heart disease.

UW Cardiovascular Research Center members involved in stem cell research include: