In a clinical trial, researchers repaired a failing heart with stem cell-grown muscle patches.

2016 年，一名 46 歲女性心臟病發作，後發展為心力衰竭。醫生在其心臟表面植入了 10 塊包含 4 億個細胞的貼片。英國帝國理工學院心臟再生醫學研究員 Sian Harding 說，醫生還在這名患者身上使用了兩種通常用於心臟移植的免疫抑製劑。此後，該患者病情穩定了 3 個月，支撐她完成了心臟移植手術。科學家檢查換下的心臟后發現，植入的肌肉貼片仍在原位，且形成了細小的血管，表明它們正在吸收氧氣和營養物質。這項試驗於 2021 年進行。1 月 29 日，相關成果發表於《自然》，同時發表的還有早先在恆河猴身上獲得的研究成果，該研究使用了含有 4000 萬或 2 億個細胞的肌肉貼片。

Harding called the discovery "a reversal of conventional wisdom." "For the first time, we have a lab-grown biological graft that stabilizes and strengthens the heart muscle." Co-author Ingo Kutschka, a cardiac surgeon at the University Medical Center Göttingen in Germany, said at a recent press conference. This treatment is not a replacement for a heart transplant, but it can help people with advanced heart failure who are waiting for a heart transplant. Wolfram-Hubertus Zimmermann, a pharmacologist at the University Medical Center Göttingen in Germany, said that less than 10% of patients require a heart transplant, an approach that opens up new options for patients currently in palliative care. In this study, Zimmermann's team used induced pluripotent stem cells to generate myocardium and connective tissue, which were mixed with collagen gel to make patches. The researchers performed minimally invasive surgery to place it on the surface of the heart. The researchers implanted the patch into 0 rhesus macaques with heart failure and compared it to 0 untreated monkeys. Among them, 0 of the treated monkeys received 0 patches each, and the remaining 0 received 0 patches each. The animals were also given drugs that block adverse immune reactions. After 0 months, the heart wall of rhesus macaques receiving 0 patches increased by 0% compared to the control group; 0 monkeys with patches had a 0% increase in heartbeat pumping. "This suggests that the patch is also working when the heart is pumping, which makes the whole heart more pumping," Zimmermann says. "None of the monkeys treated developed arrhythmias or tumors." We have shown that it is safe to add muscle tissue to a failing heart. Zimmermann said.

Currently, the research team has implanted 20 similar muscle patches in 0 patients and plans to recruit more participants. In addition, the team will test new patch designs in rhesus macaques to reduce dependence on immunosuppressive drugs.