Arm Cells Injected Into Heart

Researchers have implanted arm muscle cells into a man's diseased heart in what they say is the first such U.S. attempt to restore damaged tissue and avoid a transplant.

The technique has been tried successfully in animals and in safety trials involving three human patients who received the injections as part of a procedure in which a small pump helped keep a heart beating until a transplant became available.

But the latest procedure at the University of California at Los Angeles marked the first time in the United States the procedure was performed with the goal of helping a heart recover, not stabilizing it until a substitute was found, said Dr. Doris Taylor of Duke University, who is planning similar clinical trials.

"This is the first time we actually have a hope for recovery," Taylor said. "We might be able to regain lost heart function, which would improve the quality and quantity of life."

"The implications are profound," said Dr. Mark Sussman of the Children"s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati. "The challenge now is to find out just how well these cells can perform new tricks in their new homes."

On Tuesday UCLA officials identified the patient undergoing the new technique as Edward Cooper, a former Santa Ana city attorney who is now retired and living in Laughlin, Nev.

Cooper suffered heart attacks in 1977 and 1984, and recently found breathing more difficult and suffered chest pains. His heart was beating with only about one-quarter of its normal power.

In late April, doctors removed a small amount of tissue from Cooper's left bicep and scientists grew the tissue into hundreds of millions of cells. Unlike heart muscle cells, arm muscle cells can replicate.

Dr. Fardad Esmailian of UCLA then performed a quadruple bypass on Cooper on May 11 and injected the muscle cells into the back wall of Cooper's heart, which was severely scarred. The injection took about three minutes.

Cooper returned to UCLA on Tuesday for his first checkup and said he breathes easily, has no chest pain and can climb stairs.

"I feel wonderful today," he said.

The bypass, and not the muscle implant, have improved Cooper's health, said Dr. Robb MacLellan, the principal investigator of the UCLA study. It will take several months before researchers can determine whether the new cells have strengthened the heart and
increased the power of the heart's beating as well, he said.

The UCLA team plans to perform the procedure on 12 patients in the first phase of its clinical trials. If no adverse effects are observed, the study will be expanded.

A similar procedure using thigh muscle cells was performed in France last year.

Dr. Philippe Menasche of Hospital Bichat in Paris reported in November that cells were taken from a 72-year-old man's thigh, grown in a lab and injected into the man's heart during a bypass operation.

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