Australia is among a handful of countries trialling the use of adult stem cells in cardiac regeneration. However there are as yet no human trials involving embryonic stem cells.
In 1989, Professor Jurgen Hescheler, of Germany's University of Cologne, and colleagues became the first in the world to demonstrate they had successfully turned embryonic mouse stem cells into cardiac precursor cells – or cells capable of turning into fully-functioning heart cells.
Reviewing his work at the European Society of Cardiologists congress in Vienna, Professor Hescheler said the precursor cells not only began to beat in the petri dish but also responded to the hormone adrenaline just like normal cardiac cells.
He said he had also demonstrated that when injected into mice, the stem cells were capable of generating new cardiac tissue.
To test whether the transplantation had worked, he combined the precursor cardiac cells with a green fluorescent protein derived from the Atlantic jellyfish, known as GFP.
He then injected the green fluoro cells into mice.
"After two weeks the heart is examined and wonderful green fluorescent tissue can be found, where only dead material had been," he said.
Mice that received the stem cells also lived longer than those without transplantation.
The use of GFP is now fairly common among scientific researchers but Professor Hescheler's group was the first to combine the protein with embryonic stem cells, and he holds a patent for the procedure.
He said the results were so promising that he was now preparing to experiment with human embryonic stem cells.
However, he said the procedure didn't mean that patients who received a stem cell transplant in the future would end up with glowing green hearts.
"With this we have the first tools in our hands to test if the technique works," he said. "If we go to patients we won't need it any more."
