World's first cardiac adult stem cell trial to take place in Louisville

"The world's first phase one FDA-approved clinical trial using adult cardiac stem cells to treat heart disease will be conducted by a team of doctors at Jewish Hospital. For the first time, patients with advanced heart disease who already are undergoing bypass surgery will be recruited for participation in the clinical trial, which uses adult stem cells taken from the patient's own cardiac tissue. During surgery, a small piece of tissue that is routinely removed during the bypass procedure will be frozen and sent to colleagues at so that the adult cardiac stem cells can be extracted and removed. After the patient has recovered for three to four months, the cells will be directly injected into cardiac scar tissue using a minimally-invasive cardiac catheterization procedure, which reaches the heart through a large artery in the patient's leg" - Pharmalive.com