Stem cell therapy sparks hope in ailing hearts

"I really don't feel nervous at all," said the 37-year-old scuba instructor from Florida, who discovered his heart was failing at 32. "For the last five years, I've been waiting to die. This is the first time I've been hopeful to live."

The source of Bonilla's new-found hope is a novel therapy that involves injecting stem cells culled from the patient's own blood into the heart to try to regenerate ailing heart muscle.

The two-hour procedure, which involves a patient's own adult stem cells, skirts the risk of rejection by the body and thorny ethical issues surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells posed by some who equate using embryos with destroying human life.

"We have not lost a single patient," said Suphachai Chaithiraphan, chairman of Chao Phya Hospital and president of the Heart Association of Thailand. "If you can offer help to desperate people, then I think you should."

The destination for many of the heart patients seeking stem cell therapy is Thailand, where doctors have staked their reputations on a procedure they say could save thousands of people but has yet to be approved in the United States.

"With stem cell therapy, people who have not had access to heart transplants or resources to go to the hospital on a regular basis can be helped," said Kitipan V Arom, chief cardio-thoracic surgeon at Bangkok Heart Hospital.

Kitipan, who has performed the procedure on 27 patients since May, including Bonilla, estimates up to 500,000 Americans a year suffer from heart failure, which leaves them winded after performing routine activities such as climbing stairs.

But the use of stem cells -- master cells in the body which can develop into any cell type -- remains a touchy subject for many since very early human embryos are considered the most promising for treating human diseases.

South Korean stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-Suk, who published a landmark study on tailored human stem cells in May, resigned from his post at Seoul National University on December 23 after a probe panel said results in his paper had been fabricated.

BODY BUILDING BLOCKS
Some scientists fret the controversy over Hwang's case could provide fodder for opponents of embryonic stem cell research, which is seen as a vital step toward treatment of a host of ailments such as spinal injuries.

Their concerns cast some scepticism over the advocates of adult stem cell use due to fears the research may be politicised.

Kitipan said the long-term effects of the stem cell procedure were uncertain, and the possibility remained that patients who have had the surgery must go under the knife again.

"The problem is only a small number of patients are being done so far," he said.