Patients brought to the London Chest Hospital and the Heart Hospital will be recruited for the study. A stem cell sample will be taken from the patient’s bone marrow then the patient will receive the prepared cells into the blocked artery.
David Macauley, chief executive of the UK Stem Cell Foundation, which is supporting the study, said: “This is the first known project of its type in the UK to combine stem cell delivery to the heart with primary angioplasty – where the blocked arteries in heart attack patients are opened as quickly as possible.”
When patients are admitted to hospital after a heart attack, they are usually treated with balloon angioplasty, in which a catheter is inserted through the groin and into the blocked coronary artery. A balloon is then inflated to reopen the artery. The stem cell injection will add a further stage to the treatment, to further limit the damage caused by the heart attack.
Dr Mathur, the co-designed of the study, said: “If we can demonstrate improvement in the quality of life of patients then this will be a significant step forward in the treatment of heart disease. Because the stem cells are taken from the patient themselves there are minimal ethical issues surrounding this procedure. There is also less likelihood of rejection complications.”