In February, a three-inch nail punctured the heart of 16-year-old Dmitri Bonnville. The resulting swelling caused a heart attack, and though the boy lived, doctors feared that surviving tissue in the organ would not last. Cardiologists at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, injected the boy with hematopoietic stem cells, hoping to repair his heart; it was the first trial of its kind in the United States.1
Two years ago, the general perception was that adult stem cells could not differentiate into other tissues, says Margaret Goodell, Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston. Even though researchers have used bone marrow-derived stem cells for more than 30 years in transplants to treat leukemia, other cancer types, and genetic immune deficiencies, it was not known whether adult-derived stem cells would prove to be powerful and general therapeutic tools.
Goodell and her team at Baylor helped serve ...
