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Revealed: two men in China were first to receive pioneering stem-cell treatment for heart disease

The men are reportedly doing well one year on, but there is no way to confirm that the unpublished treatment using ‘reprogrammed’ stem cells works.
  1. Smriti Mallapaty
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Two men in China were the first people in the world to receive an experimental treatment for heart disease based on ‘reprogrammed’ stem cells, and they have recovered successfully one year later, says the cardiac surgeon who performed the procedures. In May last year, the men were injected with heart muscle cells derived from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, the surgeon told Nature — the first known clinical application of iPS-cell technology for treating damaged hearts.

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Nature 581, 249-250 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01285-w

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