Stem Cell Therapy Helps Heal Heart Ailing Woman

By Sue Mason

Tammy Henderson can ride a bike. It might not sound like a big deal, but for a woman

who was a hair's breath away from being placed on a heart transplant list two years

ago, it's huge … really huge.

To Henderson and her family, it's a sure sign that the adult stem cell therapy she had

in Thailand in April 2008 is slowly repairing her severely damaged heart.

“My doctor fully believes this is working,” said Henderson. “My echo showed at least a

5 percent improvement in ejection fraction — how well the heart pumps — and my heart

shrunk by 3 mm, which is terrific. Usually, the heart enlarges as it gets worse.”

“My oxygen level went up three points. I have been feeling really great, and I'm back

to bike riding and walking,” she added.

For the Garden City resident, the road to recovery started in 2007 when she and her

family started fund raising the estimated $40,000-$50,000 needed for the stem cell

therapy. She decided to try the treatment at the suggestion of her cardiologist and

flew to Thailand last year where she received immature stem cells created from her own

cells. The stem cells were injected by catheterization into her body close to her

heart.

“It's been eight years since I had my massive heart attack and double bypass,” she

said. “They told me that without a transplant, I wouldn't live six months and here I

am. I've improved. Up to a year ago I think I was using up my reserves, I wonder what

they would say now.”

A bad heart isn't all Henderson has had to deal with over the years. In 1990, she was

diagnosed with stage II Hodgkin's lymphoma. She underwent radiation and chemotherapy

and was cancer-free for 11 years, when she suffered a massive heart attack July 23,

2001. Five days later, she had another attack, so doctors operated to install a heart

pump. That evening, she had a mini-stroke. The next day, she had emergency bypass

surgery.

In January 2002, she was told by the Henry Ford Transplant Center to start the tests

and process for a heart transplant. She went through the process and was within a week

of being added to the list when doctors determined she had improved her heart's

pumping power by taking a CoQ10 supplement.

Kelly Moyer said her sister, who grew up in Westland and graduated from John Glenn

High School, is amazing and the improvements “are exactly what we hoped for.”

“In April, her family and I walked the Kensington Park path — 8.5 miles — that

includes many hills, I was very impressed with her strength,” Moyer said. “A couple of

years ago I would have never thought that kind of experience would be possible. Her

heart is getting smaller and pumping better, clear medical signs of improvement. I

couldn't be more pleased.”

While her heart has shown signs of healing, Henderson said she has been cured of

chronic sinusitis. She use to spend $25 month for Zyrtec, but stop taking it in April

2008.

“I have not had a sinus infection since then,” she said. “I think the stem cells took

care of it. That's a major extra plus.”

Henderson still gets a call from Thailand every few months to see how she is doing and

keeps in contact with other patients on Facebook and MySpace on the Internet. People

also contact her to “see what my opinion” is about stem cell therapy.

And she still receives donations. Recently, a couple sent her a check for $200 and

postage stamps. The message was simply, “Do something nice with your family.”

Henderson set the envelope aside, but said she now knows what she will do with the

money — take a vacation to the Wisconsin Dells and maybe a trip to Frankenmuth.

“I haven't been on a real vacation with my family for years,” she said. “In the past I

didn't want to be to far from Henry Ford Hospital. You never know, especially with

your heart. I was afraid to go to far away.”

Moyer hopes that some day the stem cell therapy will be available in the United

States. Her sister said there's a possibility it could be done at Henry Ford within a

year.

“I pray that this treatment will be available in the U.S. as soon as possible,” Moyer

said. “For someone sick to have to travel around the world for treatment is just

absurd, especially living in the U.S. We live in the best country in the world, it

doesn't seem right.”

What are stem cells, and why are they important?

Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body during early life and growth. In addition, in many tissues they serve as a sort of internal repair system, dividing essentially without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive. When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential either to remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell.
Stem cells are distinguished from other cell types by two important characteristics. First, they are unspecialized cells capable of renewing themselves through cell division, sometimes after long periods of inactivity. Second, under certain physiologic or experimental conditions, they can be induced to become tissue- or organ-specific cells with special functions. In some organs, such as the gut and bone marrow, stem cells regularly divide to repair and replace worn out or damaged tissues. In other organs, however, such as the pancreas and the heart, stem cells only divide under special conditions.
Until recently, scientists primarily worked with two kinds of stem cells from animals and humans: embryonic stem cells and non-embryonic "somatic" or "adult" stem cells. The functions and characteristics of these cells will be explained in this document. Scientists discovered ways to derive embryonic stem cells from early mouse embryos nearly 30 years ago, in 1981. The detailed study of the biology of mouse stem cells led to the discovery, in 1998, of a method to derive stem cells from human embryos and grow the cells in the laboratory. These cells are called human embryonic stem cells. The embryos used in these studies were created for reproductive purposes through in vitro fertilization procedures. When they were no longer needed for that purpose, they were donated for research with the informed consent of the donor. In 2006, researchers made another breakthrough by identifying conditions that would allow some specialized adult cells to be "reprogrammed" genetically to assume a stem cell-like state. This new type of stem cell, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), will be discussed in a later section of this document.
Stem cells are important for living organisms for many reasons. In the 3- to 5-day-old embryo, called a blastocyst, the inner cells give rise to the entire body of the organism, including all of the many specialized cell types and organs such as the heart, lung, skin, sperm, eggs and other tissues. In some adult tissues, such as bone marrow, muscle, and brain, discrete populations of adult stem cells generate replacements for cells that are lost through normal wear and tear, injury, or disease.
Given their unique regenerative abilities, stem cells offer new potentials for treating diseases such as diabetes, and heart disease. However, much work remains to be done in the laboratory and the clinic to understand how to use these cells for cell-based therapies to treat disease, which is also referred to as regenerative or reparative medicine.
Laboratory studies of stem cells enable scientists to learn about the cells’ essential properties and what makes them different from specialized cell types. Scientists are already using stem cells in the laboratory to screen new drugs and to develop model systems to study normal growth and identify the causes of birth defects.
Research on stem cells continues to advance knowledge about how an organism develops from a single cell and how healthy cells replace damaged cells in adult organisms. Stem cell research is one of the most fascinating areas of contemporary biology, but, as with many expanding fields of scientific inquiry, research on stem cells raises scientific questions as rapidly as it generates new discoveries.

Stem cells are the body’s “master” cells and can develop into tissue, organ, blood and the immune system. The primary sources of stem cells are bone marrow, peripheral (circulating) blood, and umbilical cord blood. Hematopoietic stem cells are “progenitor” or immature unspecialized cells of the hematopoietic system that have the potential to later develop into the cells of the blood and immune system: 1. red blood cells, which transport oxygen to the cells 2. white blood cells, which help fight disease 3. platelets, which are needed for blood clotting