"The first use of heart https stem cells https in humans looks like a major breakthrough for people suffering heart failure https after heart attacks https Its early  results are in for only the first  patients  but the results already are drawing praise from experts not easily impressed by first reports. This is a groundbreaking study of extreme importance Joshua Hare MD director of the University of Miamis Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute tells WebMD via email. Hare was not involved in the study. The reported benefits are of an unexpected magnitude writes Gerd https Heusch MD PhD chair of the Institute of Pathophysiology at the University of Essen Germany in an editorial in the Nov.  online issue of The Lancet. Study researcher John H. Loughran MD of the University of Louisville Ky. could barely contain his excitement in an interview with WebMD. The improvement we have seen in patients is quite encouraging he says. Michael Jones our first patient could barely walk  feet before treatment. I saw him this morning. He says he plays basketball with his granddaughter works on his farm and gets on the treadmill for  minutes three times a week. It is stories like that that makes these results really encouraging. The breakthrough comes just as researchers were becoming discouraged by studies in which bonemarrow stem cells https failed to heal damaged hearts. Instead of getting stem cells from the bone marrow the new technique harvests stem cells taken from the patients own hearts during bypass surgery. Just  gram of heart tissue  about . hundredths of an ounce  is taken. Using a technique invented by Brigham  Womens Hospital researchers Piero Anversa MD and colleagues heart stem cells are taken from the tissue and grown in the lab. These adult stem cells already are committed to becoming heart cells but they can transform into any of the three different kinds of heart tissues. Its the first time tissuespecific stem cells other than bonemarrow cells have been tested in humans Hare says. Heart Stem Cells Repair Heart Attack Damage In the study about a million of the cells were infused into each patients heart with a catheter. Calculations suggest that each of these infused cells could generate  trillion new heart cells. The study was designed to show whether the technique was safe. It was No harmful effects have been seen. But to the researchers surprise the relatively small number of cells infused into patients had a major effect. Of the  patients analyzed so far heart function improved dramatically. And in the eight patients seen one year after treatment improvement appears to have continued. Moreover the scars on patients hearts  areas of dead tissue killed during their heart attacks https  are healing. And patients arent just doing better on measures of heart function. Like Michael Jones they report vastly improved quality of life and ability to perform daily tasks. Now this is an openlabel trial so patients know they are treated. This means we have to take what they say with a grain of salt Loughran says. But we see these patients not only are feeling better but doing more. The only downside of this early success is that the ongoing study already has enrolled all  of the patients who will be treated. The experimental treatment simply will not be available to other patients in the near future. A larger phase II study is planned. All the patients that call in to us and there are quite a few interested we encourage them to maintain close contact with their doctors Loughran says. Lifestyle changes and medical management are the most important things for them right now. We will be working very hard to get new trials under way. The findings were reported at the American Heart Associations Scientific Sessions meeting in Orlando Fla. and in the Nov.  online edition of The Lancet."