Researchers from the University of Maryland Medical Center have found that cardiac stem cells (CSC) from newborns have a three-fold ability to restore heart function to nearly normal levels compared with adult CSCs.
In the animal models of heart attack in the study, hearts treated with neonatal stem cells pumped stronger than those given adult cells.
"The surprising finding is that the cells from neonates are extremely regenerative and perform better than adult stem cells," senior author, Sunjay Kaushal, said.
"We are extremely excited and hopeful that this new cell-based therapy can play an important role in the treatment of children with congenital heart disease, many of whom don't have other options," he said in a statement.
While surgery can provide structural relief for some patients with congenital heart disease and medicine can boost heart function up to two per cent, he said cellular therapy might improve heart function even more dramatically.
"We're looking at this type of therapy to improve heart function in children by 10, 12, or 15 per cent. This will be a quantum leap in heart function improvement," he added.
More From This Section
To conduct the study, researchers obtained a small amount of heart tissue during normal cardiac surgery from 43 neonates and 13 adults.
It was not clear why the neonatal stem cells performed so well, Kaushal said.
One explanation could hinge on the fact that there are many more stem cells in a baby's heart than in the adult heart.
Another explanation could be that neonate-derived cells release more growth factors that trigger blood vessel development and preservation than adult cells.
The study was published in the latest issue of Circulation.