Can stem cells repair broken hearts? Thanks to animal research we may soon find out!

On Monday – and appropriately perhaps just in time for St. Valentine’s day – a team of scientists at the Cedars Sinai Heart Institute led by Dr. Eduardo Marbán announced that in a small clinical trial they had repaired damaged heart tissue using an infusion stem cells derived from the heart attack patient’s own heart. … Continue reading Can stem cells repair broken hearts? Thanks to animal research we may soon find out!

Mice show the way to improved stem cell therapy for heart attacks

When the results of clinical trials do not live up to expectations from pre-clinical studies in animals it can be all too easy to ascribe the divergence to species differences, however scientists are increasingly aware that in many, even most cases, the problem may not be species differences but rather differences in the design of studies in … Continue reading Mice show the way to improved stem cell therapy for heart attacks

Protecting a broken heart: the discovery of remote ischemic preconditioning.

After a couple of weeks dominated by dialogue with moderate animal rights activists, and subsequently the response of the scientific community to threats by animal rights extremists,  it is refreshing to be able to turn again to an example of how research on rabbits and dogs is furthering medical progress. The prospects of surviving a … Continue reading Protecting a broken heart: the discovery of remote ischemic preconditioning.

Mending a Broken Heart

An interesting item in the news today about research on repairing the damage to the heart caused by a heart attack. The report in PNAS can be read by those with a subscription at: While there have been several attempts to bioengineer cardiac tissue for transplant  in vitro using starting from cells seeded onto a scaffold, … Continue reading Mending a Broken Heart