Tokyo (AFP) - A hospital in Japan performed the world's first surgery using sheets of commercially available heart muscle stem cells, after the innovative therapy was approved this year, one of the surgeons said.
First modification: 09/30/2026 - 14:26
During this one-hour intervention, carried out on Tuesday, three sheets of cardiomyocytes derived from iPS cells (induced pluripotent stem cells) were placed in the heart of a woman in her 50s who suffered from severe heart failure.
This procedure marks the first clinical use of this regenerative therapy since its conditional approval by the Japanese government in March.
In the trials, the eight treated patients, who suffered from ischemic heart disease – a heart injury caused by narrowing of the coronary arteries – all experienced a reduction in their symptoms and, in particular, four of them improved their heart function, according to local media.
"We hope this improves the patient's quality of life," Yoshiki Sawa, the surgeon who performed it and who directs the Osaka Keisatsu Hospital, told the press after the intervention.
Yoshiki Sawa developed this technology in collaboration with the Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka, awarded the Nobel Prize in 2012 for his research on iPS cells, which have the ability to differentiate into any type of cell in the body.
Yoshiki Sawa therapy is primarily intended for patients with heart disease who have exhausted all treatment options.
It is expected to improve the function of the heart muscle, which would lead to a reduction in the symptoms of heart failure, as well as an improvement in cardiac performance and exercise tolerance.
His team plans to perform similar interventions on 75 patients between now and 2033 to evaluate their effectiveness, according to local media.
The treatment will receive full authorization once its effectiveness and safety are demonstrated in the next seven years, according to the Asahi newspaper.
In March, Japan also granted conditional approval to a treatment for Parkinson's disease that involves transplanting iPS cells into a patient's brain, following a successful clinical trial.
© 2026 AFP
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