After Bernie Treichel had a heart attack in December, she received the standard treatment: angioplasty, in which doctors propped open her clogged arteries with stents. Then she tried something unusual. She signed up for a study in which stem cells are infused into the arm to potentially do what the body canâ??t do on its own: grow new heart muscle.
Itâ??s one of seven studies for cardiovascular disease at UW Hospital involving regenerative medicine: the use of stem cells, gene therapy or growth factors to repair damaged tissue.