University of Miami doctors trying to heal human hearts with stem cells

"In a U.S. first, University of Miami doctors have injected potentially healing adult stem cells into a patient's heart via catheter, rather than by open-heart surgery. If the early-stage research bears fruit, it could make repair from heart attacks much simpler, and more widely available and cheaper, possibly replacing open-heart surgery and heart transplants with an outpatient procedure, said Dr. Joshua M. Hare, the cardiologist who performed the procedure. 'Of course, the stem cells have to work,' Hare said. The cells have worked in animals in early trials, but they need to be tested in humans. That testing and required FDA approval would take at least five years, said Hare, who is chief of the cardiovascular division and director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute at UM Medical School" - Miami Herald