THE controversy continues over whether bone marrow stem cells can help mend hearts.
Three years ago, a lab in New York tried injecting stem cells from bone marrow into mice with damaged hearts. They reported the cells turned into new heart muscle cells and improved the animals’ health. Now small similar trials are being done in people, with some reporting positive results.
But this week, two separate teams reported that they had failed to replicate the original study (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/ nature02446 and 02460). Leora Balsam’s group at Stanford University School of Medicine in California injected labelled stem cells into…
