IMPROVE VESSELS

Highly potent stem cells from bone marrow have already shown they can generate damaged heart muscle and improve blood vessels, primarily in animal models and experimental human tests.

About 40 people with an acute myocardial infarction are to participate in the CHUM's two-year, double-blind study -- which means neither patients nor investigators know who got a placebo and who got stem cells.

No one else has done the "gold standard" study showing irrefutably that the technique is better than the standard therapy, said hematologist Denis-Claude Roy, director of the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Research Centre and part of the research team.

"So it's really a major advance and quite an achievement," said Roy, whose centre is responsible for isolating the most immature stem cells, thought to have the best impact on regenerating damaged heart tissue.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Western countries.

During a heart attack, or myocardial infarction, part of the heart muscle loses its blood supply and the oxygen-starved cells die, causing scarring, explained lead investigator Dr. Samer Mansour.

250,000 PATIENTS

An estimated 250,000 patients in Quebec suffer from heart failure annually. About half of those patients die within five years, Mansour said, despite the use of pacemakers, defibrillator and other interventions.

Standard treatment does not replace lost heart muscle and blood vessel, Mansour said.

The study's ultimate goal is to see whether stem-cell therapy can replace the need for heart transplants, reduce the number of people with heart failure, and improve patients' quality of life, Mansour said.

Pierre Dauteuil, 49, the first patient enrolled in the study, said it doesn't matter to him whether or not he got an injection of the prized stem cells or a benign, red-coloured solution.

IMPROVE CHANCES

"I can't get any worse and it could only improve my chances," said Dauteuil who suffered a heart attack while playing hockey last month.

After getting the standard treatment -- a stent to open a blocked vein plus medication -- Dauteuil had his own stem cells extracted from his bone marrow.

Study participants will be culled from patients who have recently had a first heart attack and who are relatively healthy, that is, no bone marrow, renal, hepatic or inflammatory diseases.

They will be offered the standard treatment and have stem cells harvested from their own bone marrow.

While the study is blind, preliminary results will be available because each patient is to get ultrasound, MRI and other imaging techniques within four months of treatment.

The imaging techniques are expected to reveal significant heart muscle regeneration in those who got the stem cell injections.