UCL in the News: Stem cell first for heart attack victims

Roger Highfield, 'The Daily Telegraph' Two men have become the first patients in Britain to benefit from a pioneering £1.

2 million project aimed at reducing the number of fatalities and suffering caused by heart disease, Britain's leading killer.

For the first time, heart attack patients have had stem cells injected into their hearts within a critical five hours of an attack to see if these can improve quality of life and delay or prevent the onset of heart failure. …

This, the first clinical research project to be supported by the UK Stem Cell Foundation, was designed by Dr Anthony Mathur, senior lecturer and consultant cardiologist, and Prof John Martin, British Heart Foundation chair in cardiovascular sciences; at Barts and the London NHS Trust and UCL. …

Prof Martin says: "Taking heart attack patients to centres where their blocked coronary artery can be opened immediately has lead to significant increases in survival and decreases in the damage to heart muscle. Previous studies in the heart have shown that stem cell delivery to the heart is safe. We will show whether it works in acute heart attack. Our study combines the two new ways of treating heart attack victims for the first time." …

Prof Martin, chairman of a European stem cell task force, hopes that the results of the trial on 100 patients will be known in 18 months. …