A Japanese hospital has performed what has been described as the world’s first surgery using commercially available heart muscle cell sheets made from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells).
Doctors at Osaka Keisatsu Hospital carried out the one-hour procedure on a woman in her 50s on Tuesday, according to AFP.
The treatment uses heart muscle cells created from iPS cells, which are mature cells reprogrammed into a flexible state and can then develop into different cell types.
Japan conditionally approved the treatment in March, making the procedure the first clinical use of the therapy since its approval.
The treatment is designed for patients with severe heart damage who have limited treatment options. Doctors place sheets of heart muscle cells on damaged areas of the heart in an effort to improve its function.
Osaka Keisatsu Hospital head and surgeon Yoshiki Sawa, who helped develop the treatment, said the team hopes the procedure will improve the patient’s quality of life.
The therapy had previously been tested on eight patients with ischemic heart disease, a condition in which narrowed heart arteries reduce blood flow to the heart.
Japanese media reported that all eight patients experienced improved symptoms, while heart function improved in four of them.
Sawa developed the technology with Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka, who won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on iPS cells.
The treatment is expected to improve heart muscle function, reduce heart failure symptoms and improve patients’ ability to exercise.
Sawa’s team plans to perform similar procedures on 75 patients by 2033 while studying the treatment’s safety and effectiveness.
The treatment could receive full approval if it is shown to be safe and effective, according to the Asahi Shimbun.
Japan has also conditionally approved an iPS cell-based treatment for Parkinson’s disease and has positioned iPS cell research as a major part of its regenerative medicine programme.
