local news | human stem cells fix heart damage in lab rats | seattle times newspaper

local news | human stem cells fix heart damage in lab rats | seattle times newspaper the seattle times company nwjobs | nwautos | nwhomes | nwapartments | nwsource | classifieds | seattletimes.com 43°f weather | traffic home local home eastside snohomish county southeast king county education politics obituaries photography special reports corrections traffic weather nicole brodeur jerry large david postman danny westneat all columnists nation/world home letter from washington business/tech home biotech boeing/aerospace microsoft nw companies personal technology real estate stock market events calendar brier dudley home forum retail report tech tracks sunday buzz sports home high school mariners seahawks sonics storm huskies cougars college golf hockey soccer snow sports other sports steve kelley jerry brewer sideline chatter all columnists entertainment home restaurants movies music/nightlife the arts books today's events callboard submit listings tv listings comics/games horoscopes lottery girl about town living home food & wine home & garden pacific nw magazine health growing older: liz taylor parenting: jan faull yours in health taste of the town wine adviser: paul gregutt dishing: kathy casey travel/outdoors home seattle guide washington guide oregon guide british columbia guide travel tools travel wise: carol pucci rick steves' europe nw traveler: kristin jackson trail mix: ron judd opinion home letters to the editor the democracy papers eric devericks' blog daily democracy blog jobs autos rentals real estate nwsource classifieds neighborhoods shopping advanced search movies | restaurants | today's events hi | contact us monday, august 27, 2007 - page updated at 02:05 am e-mail article     print view      share:    digg     newsvine human stem cells fix heart damage in lab rats by carol m. ostrom seattle times health reporter human embryonic stem cells have been used to regrow the heart muscles of rats that had survived lab-induced heart attacks, scientists from the university of washington and a private biotechnology company reported sunday. because the rebuilt heart muscle halted the progression of heart failure, the findings offer encouragement that treatments based on embryonic stem cells someday might be used to help people who suffer heart attacks, a leading cause of death in the u.s., said chuck murry, a uw researcher and an author of the study. unlike many tissues in the body, heart muscle cells don't regenerate. so when heart attacks cause heart cells to die, they are replaced by scar tissue, which doesn't beat. often, that leads to outright heart failure and death. murry, director of the center for cardiovascular biology at the uw's institute for stem cell and regenerative medicine, has long struggled to use adult stem cells to re-create heart muscle. he and uw colleague michael laflamme, the lead researcher on this study, knew from other studies that human embryonic stem cells could become heart muscle cells in rats — an encouraging first step. but in practice, only a tiny percentage of the stem cells were actually becoming heart-muscle cells. and most died quickly after being injected into rats' hearts. after four years of research, murry and his colleagues at geron, a biotechnology company in menlo park, calif., had a breakthrough: they found a process to coax as many as half the cells into becoming heart-muscle cells, and second, a way to keep the cells alive. not only did all the rats start getting new heart muscle, but they were protected from the progression of heart failure, murry said. "no one had ever grown human heart muscle back in an injured animal," murry said. "we're pretty pleased." the research is published in the september issue of nature biotechnology. like most research in this area, murry's is incremental, building on his own previous findings and those of other researchers. funding for this study came partially from geron, which hopes to develop medical products to help heart-attack survivors. other funding came from the federal national institutes of health. "there's an epidemic of heart failure coming on as baby boomers age," murry said. stem cells are promising to researchers because they have the ability to turn into any kind of cell in the body. the challenge has been finding ways to control their transformations. so for murry and his colleagues, the problem was to get the cells to become heart-muscle cells instead of cells for livers, kidneys or something else. at first, they had little success, but then found certain proteins would trigger the right growth. when they put the cells into damaged hearts, however, the cells died en masse. "almost everything we put in died," murry said. "it's a very harsh environment. it's what killed the heart muscle cells to begin with, so maybe it's not surprising that it killed those cells." the researchers tried one intervention after another. "we were trying to be very scientific, trying one approach at a time, but nothing worked," murry said. finally, they hit on a "pro-survival cocktail" of chemicals and also applied heat to the cells to make them behave. "lo and behold, in 100 percent of the animals we delivered the cells to, we saw grafts," murry said. about 10 percent of a damaged heart area was restored, enough to stop the progression of the heart failure. that came as a surprise, murry said. "the fact that if you can grow human heart muscle back, that prevents heart failure — we didn't know that." the study, which ran for four weeks, didn't reveal what would have happened in the long run to the rats that got the stem cells. to make the breakthrough, murry and his colleagues used the so-called "presidential lines" of stem cells. those cells are generated from a group of embryos that already had been destroyed before the bush administration limited research on embryonic stem cells. "we're pleased to be able to provide an example of something that can be done with embryonic cells that can't be done with adult stem cells," murry said. murry hopes someday to work with newer lines that would be more suitable for human transplantation. carol m. ostrom: 206-464-2249 or costrom@seattletimes.com copyright © 2007 the seattle times company more local news headlines... e-mail article print view marketplace best northwest employers - the results are in! the 2007 nwjobs people's picks winners have been revealed. see which companies won. more local news video disputes knox claim no easy answers in perugia russians arrest crab mogul new - 04:49 pm 3 women who said doctor abused them awarded $2.2m airlift northwest grounds helicopters after emergency landing man jumps from i-5 overpass in seattle man jailed in photo incident awarded $8,000 russians arrest crab mogul video disputes knox claim hawks light up the night shortage of beer ingredients may mean higher prices woman found dead in apartment identified | local digest death of wwu student called suspicious throwback era for seahawks | steve kelley redhook buying widmer brothers, changing name russians arrest crab mogul revenge of the lug nut: kitsap county man gets hurt when he blasts car wheel with shotgun download old computers into recycle bin | here and now gun backfires as car-repair tool skipper agrees to hawk global crab redhook buying widmer brothers, changing name man jumps from i-5 overpass in seattle new study may reassure parents of kids with adhd the cowboys' singer had spirit of rock 'n' roll | obituary it's official: seattle to get mls team in 2009 site map news home local nation/world business/tech entertainment living travel/outdoors real estate sports opinion marketplace jobs autos homes rentals classifieds shopping nwsource personals post an ad services contact us webmaster@seattletimes.com submit listings send us news tips newspapers in education advanced search the seattle times company about the company employment opportunities seattle times store advertise with us subscriber services home delivery manage your account membership e-mail newsletters sign up already registered? log in other editions news by e-mail wireless services rss feeds e-edition low-graphic privacy statement | terms of service copyright © 2007 the seattle times company

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