Feds Give Researchers OK for Safety Test of Adult Stem Cells in Patients With Heart Disease

From Vescell: It looks like more instituions in the United States are waking up to what we've known for quite some time now. Hopefully, (for their patients' sakes) they will figure out that they don't need to do bone marrow extractions in order to harvest the stem cells.

CLEVELAND, Nov. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals of Cleveland announced today that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved plans to begin a study to evaluate the safety of using adult stem cells from bone marrow to treat chronic ischemia, a serious form of heart disease.

The FDA has approved a Phase I study designed to test the safety of the procedure. It will involve injecting bone marrow stem cells at varying doses into the coronary arteries of patients suffering chronic ischemic coronary artery disease, a condition in which one or more of the primary arteries supplying blood flow to the heart are clogged. The study will include patients who are not candidates for angioplasty, stent placement or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG)....