Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy to Increase the Survival Rate in HLHS

Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy to Increase the Survival Rate in HLHS

Mesenchymal stem cell therapy seems an appropriate answer to the severities of HLHS disease. The congenital heart defects hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) does not allow babies to survive more than an average of five years after the birth. For the heart surgeons, it is one of the most challenging and complex forms of heart disorder to treat using surgeries and heart transplant.

Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome

The disorder leaves us with an incomplete developed left ventricle in the heart, which takes a key role in pumping blood to the lungs. As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year 960 babies are exposed to this disorder, and if left untreated the outcome is always fatal.

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In normal, when we have healthy hearts, the right ventricle does not have to work hard to supply deoxygenated blood to the lungs from the body. The left ventricle, on the other hand, uses a greater level of strength to pump resupplied blood back to the body. However, with HLHS, the right side of the heart has to take the double workloads, as well as maintaining the blood circulation to both lungs and body. So, when the stress is too much for the right side of the heart, the heart fails to work and causes the baby to die.

Type of Treatments

HLHS requires three types of surgeries in order to be treated completely- the first one performed at the birth,  the second one at 4 months of age and the final one at the age of 2 or 4. However, it does not always promise to offer a curative treatment as patients with this disorder are more likely to die even after a heart transplant.

Since open heart surgeries or transplant are not providing promising results, the only curative treatment option appears to be the stem cell therapy

We have more instances that support the use of stem cell therapy in the treatment of HLHS in babies. In a more recent incident, surgeons in Maryland injected the cells derived from bone marrow of the donor into the heart of baby Autumn Brown with HLHS. The four-month baby Autumn is now a part of the stem cell study with 10 babies at the  University of Maryland Medical Center. Both Wayne Brown and LeeAnn Janes, Autumn’s parents are hopeful for a better outcome of the clinical trial for their baby. As Autumn ’s mother wants nothing more than her healthy life, she expects that she will lead a normal life with implanted stem cells in her heart. More instances show that she is improving and will meet her relatives soon. Janes said, “I could see the stem cells as creating a super heart.”
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The Finding of Their Study

The research carried out by Dr. Kaushal had an objective of boosting or regenerating the right ventricle in patients with HLHS so that their right heart could pump blood strongly. Their research also showed that babies with implanted mesenchymal stem cells are doing well.

MSCs have allogenic properties, so they can easily expand in the culture, and are a perfect source for the trail. MSCs prove to be effective in restoring heart functions in a clinical trial, which focuses the same features for HLHS too. These cells are capable of forming heart muscles and restraining the heart muscle from dying.

The finding of the study suggested that the same techniques will work for patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome too.

We have earlier seen that stem cells provide a great potential to regenerate heart muscles. So it is believed that the result of the study will work better in case of pediatric patients too. That’s because hearts in younger individuals have better opportunity to grow as opposed to the older patients since the body is still in the development phase.

So, we can hope this novel therapy will one day improve the health of little patients who have a vulnerability to mortality.

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