Stem Cells Could Treat Heart Disease

UW research has proved the feasibility and safety of using stem cells in the first congenital heart disease-like monkey model. Danielle Lawry

Stem-cell treatment may one day delay or prevent the need for heart transplants, and a UW–Madison collaboration with Mayo Clinic is paving the way.

A research team led by Marina Emborg, professor of medical physics in the UW–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, and Timothy Nelson, physician scientist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, found that heart muscle cells grown from stem cells can integrate into the hearts of monkeys with a condition resembling congenital heart disease.

The researchers used human induced pluripotent stem cells, which are cells collected from human donors, coaxed back into a stem cell state, and then developed into cell types compatible with heart muscle. They transplanted the cells into rhesus macaque monkeys with a surgically induced heart defect, and the cells successfully integrated into the muscular layer of the heart.

“We delivered the cells to support existing cardiac tissue,” Emborg says. “Our goal with this particular study, as a precursor to human studies, was to make sure that the transplanted cells were safe and would successfully integrate with the organization of the surrounding tissue.”

The research proved the feasibility and safety of using stem cells in the first congenital heart disease–like monkey model.

Published in the Spring 2025 issue