15 Year Stem Cell Study Yields Healthy Heart Cells

SAN DIEGO - Researchers at a pair of San Diego-based life scienceorganizations announced Thursday the discovery of a molecule that converts stemcells into healthy heart cells, ending a 15-year hunt.

The finding, published in Friday's issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell,could lead to new treatments for heart disease. The study was performed atSanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, the Human BioMolecular ResearchInstitute, and ChemRegen Inc.

The molecule known as ITD-1 is able to generate an unlimited supply ofheart cells, which would give scientists more heart cells to study in theirresearch, and give physicians healthy cells to use to treat diseased hearts,according to the study.

Mark Mercola, director of Sanford-Burnham's Muscle Development andRegeneration Program, said heart disease is the leading cause of death in theU.S., but doctors can't replace damaged heart muscle.

"The only way to effectively replace lost heart muscle cells -- calledcardiomyocytes -- is to transplant the entire heart," said Mercola, the seniorauthor of the study. "Using a drug to create new heart muscle from stem cellswould be far more appealing than heart transplantation."

Stem cells were targeted for the study because they can self-replicateand convert to other, specialized types of cells. The challenge for scientistsis to discover the signals that direct the stem cells to turn into the types ofcells they want.

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15 Year Stem Cell Study Yields Healthy Heart Cells