There are many difficulties in converting any biological research into a medicine that will treat patients. Because of the complexity involved, these difficulties apply especially to translating cell research in the laboratory to a successful treatment for heart failure, where the heart is unable to pump blood around the body properly.
The definitive treatment for heart failure is a heart transplant – a difficult and costly procedure. Pills are prescribed for the condition, but they only delay death and are not effective in changing the cause of the disease.
Fifteen to 20 years ago, scientists started enthusiastically exploring the use of heart muscle precursor cells grown in the laboratory to transplant to the failing heart in the hope that they might make new heart muscle. Although results in animal tests were positive, they all failed in humans. Included in the failures was the one that my colleagues and I conducted.
