Cardiovascular disease is Australia’s number one killer, but those afflicted by the disease may soon have optimism due to research conducted in Adelaide using stem cells.

Cells harvested from their own bone marrow will give patients a new treatment options utilizing purified stem cell technology.

While this new technology, which aims to create new heart tissue, is not intended to substitute current methods of treatment, it does give physicians another alternative for those patients who have not successfully responded to normal protocol which includes medication, surgery, and pacemakers.

The research, funded by the National Heart Foundation, is unique because of the high purity stem cells that are extracted from the bone marrow.

“There has been quite a lot of work in developing purification techniques with bone and cartilage, but its use in cardiac research is really only beginning,” stated cardiologist Dr. Peter.

“Previously human cells were injected into rats that had had heart attacks and the damage was reversed or repaired a lot by new blood vessels formed in the heart.”

Six months into the study, Dr. Peter said the team had already noted promising results.

University of Adelaide’s Professor Stephen, Dr. Andrew, and Dr. Stan from the Hanson Institute are part of the team at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

The doctors intend to test the technology in larger animals first, such as sheep, and in two to three years begin clinical trials with human subjects.

“Should the treatment become available worldwide we would be looking at a 5-10 year time frame,” Dr. Peter said.

Peripheral arterial disease, recognized as PAD, is a vascular disorder that affects the blood circulation in the arms, legs, feet, stomach, and kidneys. Normally a disease that requires amputation of the affected body part, Indiana University doctors are pioneering a novel method to prevent and avert such permanent treatment using a patient’s own stem cells.

The researchers at IU harvest adult stem cells from the patient’s bone marrow, inject the cells into the diseased leg, and thus encourage the development of new blood vessels and correct the problem. The study conducted by scientists at IU is the only one of its kind in the United States.

According to scientists, in patients that are healthy, stem cells from the bone marrow migrate out of the tissue to repair arteries and organs when they are injured. For individuals afflicted with PAD, stem cells cannot reach the injured tissue in numbers that make a difference.

Thus, in patients suffering from advanced PAD, doctors at IU decided to try transporting the healing stem cells from the marrow to the leg.

The results look hopeful even though to date, only 10 patients have gone through the procedure.

“The information that we’re getting from this study is telling us this therapy does indeed work, and we’re learning more and more about how to isolate this information,” said Dr. Michael, an assistant professor of surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine and the principal investigator of the trial.

PAD, a hardening and clogging of the arteries that can lead to poor circulation, pain, and numbness on the legs and feet, afflicts between 8 and 10 million people. In about 10 percent of the patients, PAD symptoms become so bad that amputation may be the only standard treatment option available stated Murphy.

Other present methods of treatment include angioplasty and/or bypass surgery to avoid the eventuality of amputation, but the downside is that not every individual patient is suitable for one of these procedures.

Michael’s study offers an option to those individuals where amputation is the only choice left.

Four years ago, 23 year old mother and dietary aide Adriane lost all five toes on her right foot after PAD developed when she had a blood clot in her leg. When PAD caused difficulty in her other leg, Adriane feared another amputation.

After registering in Michael’s trial in September, she has no problems. The discolorations and swelling in her foot, the pain, all of these disappeared.

“Now I can do everything I want,” she said. “I was worried, because I had been there before and I knew what the outcome was in the end. I was worried I would have to go through something like that again.”

The eventual goal is to enroll 20 patients in the study and conduct follow-ups for at least one year following treatment. Michael and his colleagues have had patients come from Miami, Kansas, and New York for the procedure.

A second study on PAD has been planned where the efficacy of stem cells isolated from a patient’s fat tissue will be compared to those cells that come from bone marrow. Michael also planned an exploration into whether they might also avoid hardening of arteries, not just in PAD, but throughout the body. The exploration would begin once either or both of the techniques for treating PAD are confirmed a success.

“We’re hoping to expand this information to rebuilding the heart after a heart attack, the brain after a stroke, and maybe even the kidney or liver with the complications of diabetes,” Michael said.

Peripheral artery disease affects tens of thousands of people. Also referred to as PAD, the disease affects blood circulation, generally in the legs resulting in sores, ulcers, and in some cases amputations. For those that are suffering, a unique clinical trial being conducted at the University of Indiana involving stem cell injections as a treatment may be the answer.

Half of the projected 10 million afflicted Americans who are diagnosed have no symptoms, but others report varying levels of pain as well as other symptoms which include numbness and sores on the legs and feet. The disease is caused by atherosclerosis which can lead to heart attack by clogging and hardening the arteries.

Dr. Michael, who is an assistant professor of surgery and a researcher at the Indiana Center for Vascular Biology and Medicine at the medical school, is leading the stem cell trial. Weight loss, eliminating smoking, and maintaining a proper diet are initial suggestions for management of the disease. Cholesterol-lowering drugs may be prescribed if appropriate. An angioplasty procedure that expands the blood vessels or an artery bypass graft may be treatment alternatives if the disease continues to progress.

However, Dr. Michael says that the surgical measures are not feasible for as many as 12 percent of those individuals afflicted, and that 30,000 to 50,000 people in the U.S. receive amputations due to PAD. The quality of life for a person fighting terminal cancer is comparable to that of someone who is severely affected by PAD.

With the potential to generate the cells that compose the lining of blood vessels, specialized descendants of stem cells called progenitor cells are being used in the IU trial. These “parent” cells can produce new specialized cells in the body when required and fall beneath the class of adult stem cells.

The patient is placed under general anesthesia and bone marrow is extracted from the patient