Japan hospital performs first iPS heart-cell surgery

A hospital in Japan has performed surgery using sheets of commercially available heart muscle stem cells, in what surgeon Yoshiki Sawa described as the first clinical use of the regenerative therapy since it received conditional government approval in March.

Sheets of muscle cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, known as iPS cells, were transplanted into the heart of a woman in her 50s during an hour-long operation on Tuesday.

Sawa, head of Osaka Keisatsu Hospital, said after the surgery: “Our hope is that this will improve the patient's quality of life.”

Japanese media reported that trials of the therapy were carried out on eight patients with ischemic heart disease, and that all eight had eased symptoms, including four whose heart function improved.

Sawa developed the technology with Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka, who won the 2012 Nobel Prize for research into iPS cells. The treatment is mainly intended for heart patients who have exhausted other treatment options.

Sawa's team plans similar operations on 75 patients by 2033 and will report on the treatment's efficacy, media reports said. The Asahi Shimbun daily reported that the treatment would be fully authorised if its benefits and safety are proved over the next seven years.