New source of stem cells form heart muscle cells, repair damage

A new and non-controversial source of stem cells can form heart muscle cells and help repair heart damage, according to results of preliminary lab tests reported in Circulation Research: Journal of the American Heart Association. Investigators in Japan used the amniotic membrane - the inner lining of the sac in which an embryo develops - to obtain stem cells called human amniotic membrane-derived mesenchymal (undifferentiated) cells (hAMCs). 'The amniotic membrane is medical waste that could be collected and used after delivery,' said Shunichiro Miyoshi, M.D., Ph.D., co-author of the study and assistant professor in the cardiology department and Institute for Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics at the Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo - Science Centric