They envision that when a patient comes to the emergency room with a heart attack, doctors would remove a small plug of cells from the leg and grow them in the laboratory for about two weeks, long enough to assess damage to the heart and for the immune system to return to normal. Then the cells would be delivered with a catheter, a device now commonly used to clear blocked arteries. Taylor began her experiments several years ago with the hope of providing some way to prevent hearts that were damaged by severe heart attacks from progressing to heart failure. Currently there is no way to reverse damage done to the heart during an extended period of low oxygen, as occurs in a severe heart attack. Although the remaining heart muscle cells grow larger to compensate, that only makes the heart more inefficient.
Cardiologists rely on quickly removing blockages in arteries with clot busting agents.
But in cases where the heart is damaged, it can't repair itself. The result can be congestive heart failure, a chronic condition that kills more than 41,000 people annually in the United States and Europe. You are born with all the heart cells you'll ever have. Once you damage the heart muscle, it's gone forever. Yet as any body builder knows, if you strain your biceps pumping iron they respond by building new muscle.