Adult Stem Cells Help Weakened Hearts

The cells within the human body are quickly becoming a canvas for medical art. Look at what researchers are announcing these days:

Regenerating hearts…

Even patients who suffered an episode decades ago can benefit, researchers say.

Using stem cells harvested from patients’ own bone marrow, researchers improved cardiac function in heart attack patients months, years — and even decades — after the attacks, they reported Wednesday.

The infusion of stem cells boosted cardiac pumping efficiency by 7% in three months — a modest gain, but still a significant improvement for a chronic condition.

In one case, a patient who had suffered a heart attack 30 years earlier showed an 11% improvement after the treatment, according to the study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Regrowing limbs..

Grow Your Own Limbs

The two groups are sharing $7.6 million in grants for a year to find a way to give humans salamander-like abilities. According to Army Medical Command, 411 soldiers who fought in Iraq and 37 in Afghanistan are amputees as a result of combat wounds.

If preliminary research is successful, the scientists could receive more funding for up to four years.

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