Vocational School of Justice
STEM CELLS FOR A ‘BROKEN HEART’
Stem cells from babies’ umbilical cord were transplanted into damaged parts of the heart during a bypass surgery. The new treatment approach in medical science aims to shrink the tissue and let patients live a more comfortable life. Prof. Dr. Alp Can, Lecturer from Department of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara University, the leading name in this study, made a guest appearance in the seminar held by Izmir University of Economics (IUE) Faculty of Medicine at the Conference Hall.
Prof. Dr. Can, who gave information about the study, said, "Number of patients to whom stem cells from babies’ umbilical cord were transplanted into has reached 20. We are closely monitoring our patients after the transplant. We will have the exact results in 14 months." They were at the end of a 12 year study, indicated Prof. Dr. Can. "We are reaching the end of a 12 year enduring study. The stem cells we use aren’t the umbilical cord blood stem cells. Umbilical cord has a soft tissue, an elastic one. We sort out the stem cells in that soft tissue. All we need is a 6 cm piece. We remove billions of stem cells from that piece and reproduce it. We keep these stem cells we take out under suitable conditions and use them for a test treatment. We gather newborn babies’ umbilical cords with their parents’ consent,” stated the Professor.
‘Stem cell support to alarming damage’
Prof. Dr. Can said the alarm system kicked in when tissue damages occurred in the body, and the stem cells detected the alarm signals perfectly. He stated the following:
"These stem cells we transplant migrate towards the alarming part. We accelerate the process by transplanting these into the living section of the damaged tissue even before they migrate. We were able to lower the damage from 20% to 3-4% in our experiments. Of course, the amount of stem cells, the time they are transplanted and how many times they are transplanted play an important role here. It is also important the time you test the repair rate. We will be able to see the definite results 1 year later. These patients will come for checkups every 3 months and get tested."