Grow your own replacement valve

[river-wear]

I was just organizing what seems like 100 bookmarks relating to AVR, heart surgery, ACT, etc. and ran across this older link my husband sent me a couple of years ago.

The article says they had experimentally grown replacement valves from stem cells and that the technology could be ready in 5-8 years (from 2007).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-479481/Heart-patients-valves-grown-cells.html

And a short video on the same thing - it's dated 5/09 but is at least two years old:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9VX_pMiQUQ

I can't find anything more recent on how this is progressing. Has anyone else heard of this?

Michele

 

[Lynlw]

There are a few places working on them, I know Boston childrens has been for a few years and can't remember where in Cal. That was a couple of years ago, so there probably are more now. When you search either here or online try "tissue engineered valves"
This is the thing I hope the most for in the future, it would hopefully help Justin and many of the kids like him, to quit needing surgies. The hope for young children is it would grow with the child.

 

[tobagotwo]

This is an ongoing pattern of research. There have been hopeful versions of this for over a decade, but they haven't panned out yet. Cryolife had the first version, which failed after a couple of years. But someone will get it right yet.

These valves that grow your cells on a collagen scaffold have the greatest potential of all the valves. They can even grow along with children who have them.

However, because of the way they're grown, I dub them "Chia Valves."

Best wishes,

 

[river-wear]

LOL - "chia valves" - I like that!

After Lyn's post I searched around some more for updates and didn't find anything useful. There was one reference to a prototype implanted in a mouse (I think) and it lasted five months. I guess the original 5-8 year timeline may have been rather optimistic.

It would be really great for kids especially. Also obviously great for us older folks who could have one surgery and be done - without Coumadin. Much better for folks in countries where managing Coumadin is more challenging than in the US too.

Michele

 

[R&N Brown]

60 Minutes run a segment on a biomedical company in PA that had grown a human valve among other organs and body parts.
They started with cells from the person whom the part is destined for.
6 weeks to grow an ear in a mold. It was a pretty interesting segment.
They displayed the heart valve in a case and it was working.

 

[RI Mom]

I am waiting desperately for this to become a reality. Can you imagine having a valve made from your own tissue that your body would recognize as its own? If this works out, mechanical valves could become a thing of the past. I actually saw a model of one featured on the Dr. Oz show one day when he was talking about advancements in medicine.

 

[Ross]

I've been trying to grow my own for years. Got any Miracle grow?

 

[Lynlw]

I am waiting desperately for this to become a reality. Can you imagine having a valve made from your own tissue that your body would recognize as its own? If this works out, mechanical valves could become a thing of the past. I actually saw a model of one featured on the Dr. Oz show one day when he was talking about advancements in medicine.

A mom I know whose daughter (Holly Turner) was born with one of the CHDs that will need life long pulm valve/conduit replacements started a foundation and fundraises JUST to raise money for Dr.Mayer, at Boston'sTE research.I am so impressed with parents like her and all the others that do whatever they can to help get money for CHD research to not only help THEIR child, but many other kids and adults since the amount of money that goes to CHD research is SOOO little. Holly's Mom usually has a few fundraisers a year. Hopefully one day sooner than later they are available.

 

[netmiff]

I vaguely remember something (maybe from Toronto?) in the last few months that they had injected stem cells ("programmed" to grow into heart cells) into a damaged heart of some kind, and they repaired the damage. I believe this was in a lab, or even an animal of some kind.

This kind of advance won't be too far in the future, and once they start, it will just take off and spread - livers, kidneys etc. - because the techniques for each will be similar, just the applications different. I think this was the kind of research that Christopher Reeve was supporing, for spine damage.

Between this and the gene stuff that is booming right now, what we went through will be considered "witchcraft" or "quackery" in the not-too-distant future.

 

[river-wear]

I vaguely remember something (maybe from Toronto?) in the last few months that they had injected stem cells ("programmed" to grow into heart cells) into a damaged heart of some kind, and they repaired the damage. I believe this was in a lab, or even an animal of some kind.

During my Google excursion, I found they did this with a 16-year-old boy at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, MI. (I went there to monitor my murmur as a kid - the doctor who did it was MY doctor way back when; he doesn't look old enough.) He had been shot through the hear with a nail gun and they were trying to see if his heart would regenerate the muscle.

Here's the article (from 2003):
http://www.theheart.org/article/260229.do

I found a PBS program that followed up a year later. The article says:

The program also tells the extraordinary story of Michigan teen Dimitri Bonnville, whose heart was punctured during a horrific nail gun accident. Despite a desperate prognosis, he has made a full recovery following stem cell treatment similar to that performed in Germany. His physician, Dr. William O'Neill, Director of Cardiovascular Disease, Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan, tells about the decision to go for the stem cell treatment instead of a heart transplant, and how that gamble paid off.

Michele