Doctors have implanted adult stem cells extracted from a man’s fat tissue through liposuction into his heart, in an experimental treatment for angina and heart disease.
Cytori Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CYTX) (FWB:XMPA) and Hospital Gregorio Maranon in Madrid, Spain treated the first patient in Cytori’s randomized clinical trial investigating the safety and feasibility of adipose-derived stem and regenerative cells as a therapy for cardiovascular disease.
The study, designated as the ‘PRECISE’ trial, will enroll patients suffering from chronic myocardial ischemia, a severe form of end-stage coronary artery disease, which is estimated to affect hundreds of thousands of patients in Europe and the United States. Patients in the study will receive their own adult stem and regenerative cells, thereby avoiding the risk of rejection or disease transmission that exists with donor stem cells and the controversy associated with embryonic stem cells. Once introduced into a patient’s heart, the cells have shown preclinically to help the body improve blood supply that can restore circulation to the heart.
“Patients with chronic heart disease today have few options making this an important milestone for the affected patients and doctors that treat them,” said Marc H. Hedrick, M.D., President for Cytori Therapeutics. “This study is designed to show unequivocally whether the cells from our Celution System(TM) can be safely introduced into the heart. Our ultimate goal is to asses the clinical therapeutic effect of the cells, which were shown in preclinical studies to significantly improve heart function.”