Renovating the Heart

摘要

Cardiologist Richard Schatz is tired of watching his patients die. They face daily anguish―as do millions of other people―because their hearts are pocked with dead muscle, undersupplied by blood, and gradually losing strength. Heart transplants can save a fraction of these patients, about 2000 in the United States each year. The rest get along on an imperfect mix of drugs, dietary restriction, and exercise. Some respond; many do not, joining a toll that makes heart disease the number one killer in developed countries. But Schatz does not accept this as inevitable. Based at the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California, he's one of a growing number of cardiologists embracing an experimental approach to attacking heart disease, called cell therapy. It involves taking cells, usually from the patient's own body, and delivering them to the ailing heart. Interest is soaring, with more than a dozen clinical studies under way worldwide.