With the recent publication of final guidelines for stem cell research by the National Institutes of Health, the day when heart patients might be helped by this exciting new research got a little bit closer. It will still be a while, but researchers project that ultimately, healthy heart cells grown in the laboratory can be transplanted into failing hearts to boost their functioning.

Stem cells hold great promise for advances in healthcare because they can be stimulated to develop into specialized cells such as nerve cells, heart cells, blood cells, and others. For example, in future “cell therapy,” heart muscle cells developed from stem cells could be transplanted into the failing heart muscle in order to augment its function. In animal studies, healthy heart muscle cells have been successfully transplanted into the heart, where they worked together with the existing heart cells.

Although the technological challenges are significant, NIH feels that they are not insurmountable and that this type of innovation will touch essentially every realm of medicine one day. The NIH guidelines were developed to assure that the ethical, legal, and social issues relevant to human stem cell research are addressed before NIH funds any such research.