BioVAT stem cell heart patch offers hope for heart failure patients

Hearts can’t heal themselves. 

After a heart attack or other cardiovascular insult, hearts can’t regenerate weakened muscles, leaving them less able to pump blood throughout the body. While medications to manage symptoms of heart failure — including newer obesity drugs — have been improving outcomes, many people ultimately face only two solutions: a heart transplant or heart device implant.

Now a small new study reports progress with a novel method. After people received patches of heart muscle engineered from induced pluripotent stem cells, their re-muscularized heart walls thickened, revving up pumping ability and modestly improving quality of life. The biological ventricular assist tissue in a patch, called BioVAT for short, was conceived as a bridge to either transplant, where wait times are long, or to implantation of a left ventricular assist device, or LVAD, in end-stage heart failure. A larger trial will help determine who might be the best candidate for this approach and how durable it might be.