Disease Fact Sheets
All Diseases	Heart Disease

Heart muscle precursors derived from human embryonic stem cells (Bruce Conklin at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease)

CIRM funds extensive research in heart disease, including heart failure. Some research is basic in nature, investigating heart function and development, while other projects are moving stem cell-based therapies to the clinic.

If you want to learn more about CIRM funding decisions or make a comment directly to our board, join us at a public meeting. You can find agendas for upcoming public meetings on our meetings page.

Learn more about stem cell research:
Stem Cell Basics Primer | Stem Cell Videos | What We Fund

Find clinical trials:
CIRM does not track stem cell clinical trials. If you or a family member is interested in participating in a clinical trial, please see the national trial database to find a trial near you: clinicaltrials.gov

Description

Many forms of heart disease could benefit from stem cell research. One form, Ischemic cardiomyopathy, also known as congestive heart failure, is being targeted by a CIRM disease team, which aims to bring a therapy to the clinic in four years or less. Heart failure occurs when the muscles in the main pumping chambers of the heart have weakened due to blood and oxygen deprivation. Heart failure is a bit of a misnomer given that the heart has not failed completely. It has instead become inefficient at pumping blood throughout the body. The result is a backup of blood and fluids in organs, especially the lungs, causing swelling and difficulty breathing.

Heart failure can develop because blood vessels to the heart are blocked by plaques or cholesterol buildup. It can also develop because muscles have become too stiff due to other heart diseases to pump efficiently. Smoking and drinking alcohol also damage blood vessels to the heart, and over time can lead to ischemia. Other conditions that can cause heart failure include heart attacks, high blood pressure, heart valve disorders, irregular heartbeat, and diabetes.

This condition is serious, chronic and progressive. It increases a person’s risk of sudden cardiac death and respiratory arrest. While early stages of heart failure may be reversible, the disease is usually chronic and progressive.

Bruce Conklin of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease
talks about using stem cells to screen drugs for heart side effects

CIRM Grants Targeting Heart Disease

CIRM Heart Disease Videos

Disease Team Award

One of the CIRM-funded heart failure research projects is a multidisciplinary team led by researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Foundations. All Disease Team Award recipients are expected to meet milestones along the path to reaching FDA clinical trial submission within four years. 

• Read about the CIRM Disease Teams
• Read the heart disease team public summary

The Cedars-Sinai-led team has developed a way to harvest a patient’s cardiac stem cells via a minimally-invasive biopsy, isolate them, and grow them in large numbers. These cells can partially repair the heart after a heart attack and during heart failure. The team plans to test injection of clusters of cardiac stem cells, called cardiospheres, directly into heart muscles of in an animal model of heart failure to see if they are a more effective treatment than injecting individual stem cells. The treatment should repair damaged heart tissue, potentially reversing heart failure. The group expects the treatment to be well tolerated by patients because the cardiospheres are grown from a patient’s own cardiac stem cells.

News and Information

• CIRMResearch Blog entries on heart disease research results
• Research Offers Clue Into How Hearts Can Regenerate in Some Species (New York Times)

Resources

• NIH: Heart Failure Information
• Find a clinical trial near you: NIH Clinical Trials database
• American Heart Association
• National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
• Stem Cell Network heart failure page