Stem Cells as Artery Cleaners?

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In a new study that has been initiated to determine whether or not stem cells can be used to help improve circulation in those suffering from blocked arteries, a Feinberg school of medicine researcher named Dr. Douglas Losordo is hoping to study the bone marrow of participants and to transplant purified cells into leg muscles suffering from severely blocked arteries. In many cases, the damage caused by blocked arteries may ultimately lead to limb amputation.
Such stem cells will be helped to create and grow new blood vessels that may help to restore blood circulation to such limbs. The patients in his study suffer from a condition called critical limb ischemia, which results from major blockage of arteries and vessels. Critical limb ischemia causes extreme pain and impairs blood flow to the lower extremities. The condition affects more than one million people, and more than 100,000 limbs are amputated on a yearly basis as a result of this condition. If left untreated, this condition also causes tissue damage, gangrene, and wounds they refuse to heal.

Dr. Losordo is the director of the Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute and the Director of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The first initial studies designed for potential stem cell use in increasing and improving circulation will include roughly 75 patients at various sites around the country. The study is designed to help those patients who have undergone and completed other medical options that failed.

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