by A baby born with a heart defect has become the first person on record to receive an injection of stem cells to patch his heart after surgery. The boy, named Finley, is now 2 years old and his doctors are developing a refined version of his stem cell treatment to repair the hearts of more children in the future.
Congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defect, affecting about 1% of children born in the US and the same proportion in the UK, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (opens in new tab) (CDC) and UK National Health Service (opens in new tab). Baby Finley was born with a birth defect called “transposition of the great arteries,” meaning the two main arteries meant to carry blood from his heart had switched places, according to a statement (opens in new tab) from the University of Bristol in England.
Finley underwent open-heart surgery four days after birth to move the arteries back to their normal position. Complications arose after the 12-hour procedure, and as Finley’s heart function worsened, he received continued treatment in an intensive care unit. After weeks of this care, Dr. Massimo Caputo (opens in new tab)professor of congenital heart surgery at Bristol Medical School, offered Finley’s parents another option: an injection of stem cells directly into the heart.
“He warned us that he couldn’t predict what the outcome would be. But we had absolutely nothing to lose,” Melissa Hunt, Finley’s mother, said in the statement. “We had to try to give Finley every possible chance to live.”
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At the University of Bristol, Caputo had already developed a “stem cell patch,” or patches containing donated stem cells that can be sewn into the heart during surgery. Unlike standard synthetic patches or replacement heart valves, in theory, these patches won’t need to be replaced as often as the child grows. The patches could help reduce or eliminate the need for children to undergo repeated open-heart surgeries, the researchers said.
“We’re trying to create living tissue, whether it’s a valve or a blood vessel or a patch, that will grow with the child and that won’t deteriorate,” Caputo said in a profile published by British Heart Foundation (opens in new tab). “I think that would make a big difference in their quality of life.”
The patches have been shown to be safe in animals, and with funding from the British Heart Foundation, Caputo aims to begin human clinical trials within two years, according to Bristol’s statement.
In Finley’s case, he received stem cells “on compassionate grounds,” not as part of a clinical trial, and he did not receive the patch Caputo is currently developing. Instead, he received an injection of stem cells while undergoing his second open-heart surgery.
“Within two weeks of the stem cell treatment we noticed a change in Finley. He came home for the first time when he was just six months old on a machine that still helps him breathe at night,” Hudd said. “We don’t know what the future holds, but we are so grateful that Finley’s life has changed after stem cell treatment, as he now has a chance at life that he might not have had otherwise.”
