A cure for heart failure could be ‘just a few years away’ after scientists successfully regenerated the damaged hearts of primates using human stem cells. [s]The Daily Telegraph[/s] reports that the breakthrough, which was hailed as ‘very significant’ by British experts, will be tested on humans within four years. Researchers found that damaged hearts of seven macaque monkeys could be repaired by up to 40% by injecting human stem cells directly into the organ. ‘It shows for the first time that we can do regeneration at a scale that the world has never seen before,’ said Dr Charles Murry, at the [b]University of Washington[/b]. ‘We’ve shown that (stem cells) will survive and they will organise to form new heart muscle and they will connect with the surrounding cardiac muscle cells and beat in synchrony.’ Currently people with severe heart failure must wait for a heart transplant.
For heart attack survivors, eating plenty of fibre may improve their long-term chances of recovery. [s]BBC News[/s] reports that a [b]Harvard School of Public Health[/b] team analysed data from two large US studies involving more than 4,000 people who had survived a first heart attack. They were followed for an average of almost nine years after their heart attacks, during which time 682 of the women and 451 of the men died. Chances of survival appeared to be linked with fibre intake, which was mostly from breakfast cereals. The researchers say the findings point to a simple lifestyle step that people could take, alongside their medication, to improve their long-term health prospects.
[link url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10799415/Stem-cell-injections-may-take-place-of-heart-swaps.html]Full report in The Daily Telegraph[/link]
[link url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24780238]Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology Abstract[/link]
[link url=http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27192045]Full BBC News report[/link]
[link url=http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g2659]British Medical Journal abstract[/link]