Mayo animal study uses manufactured stem cells to treat heart damage

ROCHESTER, Minnesota — A batch of re-engineered, personalized stem cells has helped repair heart damage, according to new research from the Mayo Clinic.

It’s an important discovery beyond the area of heart treatment. The broader application of these cells — known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) — is they could steer scientists away from controversial issues around stem-cell science. The cells are not created from nor do they rely on human embryos, which must be destroyed to do some embryonic stem cell research.

Scientists create iPS cells by reprogramming adult non-stem cells. The approach has worked in treating Parkinson’s disease, sickle-cell anemia and hemophilia A. But it also was thought the cells would have limited use because altering them increased risks for infection and other diseases.

The drawbacks of using the cells is declining. Researchers recently showed they can use iPS cells without increasing the risk of cancer.

Mayo physicians, in a proof-of-concept study performed on mice, reprogrammed fibroblasts — connective tissues that can create the scars that lead to a heart attack. Instead, the fibroblasts were turned into stem cells that in less than a month fixed and strengthened a damaged heart.

Researchers say that using the body’s cells as part of a transplant could eliminate the risk of rejection and the use of anti-rejection drugs and, further down the line, cut the need for some transplants.

“This iPS innovation lays the groundwork for translational applications,” Dr. Andre Terzic, the Mayo Clinic senior author on the study, stated in a release. “Through advances in nuclear reprogramming, we should be able to reverse the fate of adult cells and customize ‘on demand’ cardiovascular regenerative medicine.”

Michael Werner, an organizer of the new Alliance for Regenerative Medicine that advocates for stem-cell research, applauded the breakthrough but warned about overvaluing potential of innovations like iPS cells to supplant the need for embryonic stem cell research.

“This whole field is so new, we don’t know what technologies will be the most fruitful,” said Werner, a biotech attorney and partner at the Washington, D.C., law firm Holland & Knight. “There are big advantages to embryonic stem cell research. It’s not just the research value in cell differentiation, but in drug development and discovery and other areas.

“We may get to a point where we don’t need embryonic stem cells,” Werner said. “But I don’t think we’re anywhere near that place yet.”