New study shows stem cells can heal damaged arteries

Scientists have carried out a study showing the potential of stem cell therapies to completely heal an artery that has been severely damaged.

The Texas Biomedical Research Institute team performed tests using baboon embryonic stem cells, finding these can be programmed into cells that are the precursors of blood vessels, before forming tubular and branching structures.

Using this method, researchers were able to restore vessels among test subjects from non-functional tubes to complex fully functional arteries within 14 days.

Dr John VandeBerg, Texas Biomed's chief scientific officer, said: "Just think of what this kind of treatment would mean to a patient who had just suffered a heart attack as a consequence of a damaged coronary artery."

It is hoped that this principle could be used more widely in future, allowing doctors to use skin cells to grow a new pancreas for diabetes sufferers, for example.

Such potential benefits underpinned the Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust's decision in November 2012 to launch a new national stem cell resource for the UK, at a cost of 12.75 million pounds.