Stem cell therapy can help cut down progression of cardiac disease to heart failure or treat existing heart failure, while up to 90 per cent success rate in stem cell surgery for cardiac patients has been recorded in “a very specific patient population”, latest research reveals.

While benefits of such research is “on the early emergence in India”, in the next three to six months, trials can be started in “key centres” including Calcutta, hopes Amit N. Patel, globally-acclaimed cardiothoracic surgeon and pioneer in stem cell research and therapies for cardiac disorders.

“Issues of delivery, retention of cells, type of optimal cells and timing of delivery are the principal challenges in India at this point,” Patel, certified by the US FDA for clinical trials using adult stem cells to treat heart patients, tells Metro. The director of cardiac stem cell therapies, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, US, has performed over 100 adult stem cell surgeries worldwide.

Stem cell therapy helps the human body repair itself by utilising the stem cells, which are still at an early stage of development, and implanting them in other areas of the body in order to aid the body repair itself. Used in cardiac surgery, stem cells are directly injected into the heart muscle with a needle.

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