The biggest ever stem cell trial involving heart attack patients has got under way in London. The study, which will involve 3,000 patients in 11 European countries, should show whether the treatment can cut death rates and repair damaged tissue after a heart attack.
All the patients will have standard treatment to widen their narrowed arteries, which involves inserting a small tube called a stent. In addition, half the patients will have stem cells taken from their bone marrow and injected into their heart.
This will happen within days of them suffering a heart attack.
During a heart attack, a fatty plaque causes a blood clot inside an artery, starving heart muscle of oxygen and leaving scar tissue.
Although more and more patients are surviving heart attacks, they can be left considerably weaker because heart muscle has been permanently damaged.
"After 15 years of research we will now have a clear answer. We hope to show that stem-cell injections can cut the number of people dying from heart attacks by 25%.
"If it works, it would open up a whole new branch of medicine, and give heart attack patients an entirely new treatment."
The trial includes hospitals in the UK and in other major European cities such as Paris, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Milan and Copenhagen.
The study, known as the BAMI (bone acute myocardial infarction), has received nearly £5m from the European Commission.
The results will be announced in 5 years.
The results will be announced in 5 years.
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