“The liver is perhaps the best organ in the body in terms of its ability to regenerate itself,” says Pathology Professor Chuck Murry. “In the liver, cells that are left over after some type of liver damage are able to go back into the cell cycle and start dividing again.”
But a damaged heart is another story.

“There’s very little new muscle that’s generated in the heart after a heart attack,” he says.
Murry is using embryonic stem cells to regenerate heart tissue. While there may be some stem cells that live in the heart and are capable of repopulating heart muscle cells, they are too slow, “and they’re not sufficient to meet the demand of the type of large-scale muscle loss that occurs after a heart attack,” he says.

At present, the only tissue replacement therapy for an injured heart is heart transplantation.
But stem cell research offers hope for the heart.

Murry’s lab at the UW has grown new cardiac tissue in mice and rats by implanting heart muscle cells grown from stem cells. They found that cells from bone marrow can grow blood vessels, while embryonic stem cells can give rise to heart muscle tissue.

“Stem cell research holds promise because it offers the opportunity to rebuild damaged tissues from component parts,” says Murry, who co-directs the UW regenerative medicine institute and is the leader of the UW Center for Cardiovascular Biology.

If Murry’s work continues to make advances, it may be ready for human trials within the next three to four years.

Both Fausto and Murry are an inspiration to Greg Lipski, a third-year UW medical student who learned about the regenerative powers of stems cells from two perspectives—as a doctor in training and as a patient hanging on to hope.

Diagnosed last year with leukemia, Lipski remembers watching his sister’s stem cells move through a tube into his body as he underwent a bone-marrow transplant at the UW Medical Center. Stem cells have been used for years in transplants for patients with leukemia, like Lipski, and for some blood disorders.

“I tried to visualize what might be happening and what I hoped was happening to my cells,” he recalls. His 41-year-old sister turned out to be a perfect match and Lipski’s greatest chance for a cure.

Today, more than a year after his sister’s stem cells flowed into his body, Lipski is doing well. He’s back in medical school at the UW, finishing up a family medicine rotation in Whitefish, Mont., followed by an obstetrics/gynecology rotation in Rock Springs, Wyo. He’s feeling good, his red cell counts are up, and his doctor even took him off one of his prescribed medications due to his amazing progress. And, in September, he climbed to the top of Mt. Adams.

Now more than ever, Lipski says, he is interested in the advances being made in stem cell research at UW and other institutions around the globe.

“Hope is huge,” he says. “I’ve now been on both sides of the fence with this, as a med student immersed in my studies and as a cancer patient. The type of research being conducted at the UW in this area is truly amazing—it really holds promise for both patients and doctors in terms of new treatments and potential cures.”

Murry agrees. “We are in the beginning stages of what could become the next revolution in medicine,” he says.

• Clare Hagerty is the assistant director of Health Sciences/UW Medicine News & Community Relations.