Bone marrow extract as effective as bone marrow stem cells for improving cardiac function, especially after a heart attack, according to a group of researchers.

There is a heart failure when cardiac muscle is damaged and scar tissue replaces beating cardiomyocytes (cardiac muscle cells). As a scar replaces healthy tissue, it causes the heart to enlarge and lose its capacity to pump blood.

The studies were done on mice using a novel stem cell delivery method, developed by University of California - San Francisco (UCSF) researchers, to show that extract from bone marrow cells is as beneficial to cardiac function as are intact, whole cells.

Both the cell and cell extract therapies resulted in the presence of more blood vessels and less cardiac cell death. Yerem Yeghiazarians, Director of UCSF’s translational cardiac stem cell development program, said that exact mechanism is not yet clear. The results confirm that whole cells are not necessarily required in order to see the useful effects of bone marrow cell therapy.

UCSF researchers are investigating these new therapies to improve cardiac function after heart attack in an effort to prevent heart failure.

These findings were published online and will appear in the July issue of the Journal of Molecular Therapy.