MYOCARDIAL REGENERATION - TRANSPLANTING SATELLITE CELLS INTO DAMAGED MYOCARDIUM

Millions of Americans suffer from chronic heart failure. Despite treat ments with heart transplantation, cardiomyoplasty, and artificial assi st devices, an ideal therapy is yet to be found. Since 1988, we have s tudied the transplantation of myogenic stem cells from skeletal muscle into injured myocardium in the hope that these cells would multiply a nd diiferentiate, thereby improving the function of the failing hears. We have achieved 2 goals thus far: the 1st was improving the culture technique to obtain high yield and purity of the satellite cells, the 2nd was successfully implanting cultured satellite cells in dog hearts and later identifying them as new myocardium. We share our findings h ere to encourage more study in this promising area.