"University of Miami cardiologists last week reported success in a small preliminary human clinical trial of a new stem cell therapy they hope some day will routinely mend human hearts and reduce the need for lifelong medication even for transplants. Thats the Holy Grail the quest the whole field has been pursuing for close to a decade and this is evidence were on the right track said Dr. Joshua Hare director of the University of Miami Medical Schools Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute. Hes lead author of the study that appears in Thursdays peerreviewed Circulation Research Journal of the American Heart Association. Max Eaton the yearold directbuy franchise owner who was patient No. in the eightperson trial said Wednesday hes thankful he was part of the trial adding that he had just completed a .mile minute walk around his neighborhood in LauderdalebytheSea Fla. I feel very grateful he said. Almost certainly I would be deceased or in much worse shape had I not had the opportunity to be in this program. Hare stressed that the current trial is only a small runup phase of extensive testing that will take up to five years and involve dozens of hospitals and hundreds of patients before winning U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for routine use. The trial was primarily about the safety of the procedure and all eight patients came through without significant side effects he said. The procedure also reduced the size of hearts swollen by previous heart attacks a condition called cardiomyopathy or simply heart failure. The reduction was up to  percent while current therapies including medication and pacemakers typically reduce the size by only about  percent he said. The reduction in swelling increases the hearts ability to pump blood he said. By implication it almost certainly improves the patients health although that was not directly measured in the small early study. In the study stem cells were taken from the patients own bone marrow and injected by catheter into scar tissue in the patients heart caused by an earlier heart attack. It worked in patients such as Eaton whose heart attack was  years ago Hare said. The hope was that the immature adult stem cells would turn into heart muscle replacing the scar tissue. The study shed new light on a question of prime interest to cardiologists whether the injected stem cells actually transformed themselves into heart muscle or improved heart function in some other way. Some of the stem cells did become heart muscle Hare said they also triggered the heart to produce more of its own stem cells which became new heart muscle as well he said. The next step is two more nearterm studies. The first which started in  is a doubleblind placebocontrolled study of  patients designed further to test the safety of the procedure but primarily its efficacy or how well it works. Another study about to get underway will see whether bone marrow from a donor can work as well as the patients own bone marrow. Later researchers will conduct a study involving  to  hospitals and many hundreds of patients aimed at winning final FDA approval. Eatons part of the testing is finished. He says hes glad he took part even though it hasnt quite turned him into an Olympic runner. I still get chest pains at times. It depends on the time of year. I had my heart attack  years ago in the fall. Thats when I get them he said. But he adds Im not ready to go. Ill keep going as long as I can enjoy whats to be enjoyed."