Stem cells taken from a patient's own heart have for the first time, been used to repair damaged heart tissue.
This preliminary trial was on patients with heart failure who were having heart bypass surgery

The study, published in The Lancet, was designed to test the procedure's safety, but also reported improvements in the heart's ability to pump blood.
Dr Roberto Bolli, one of the researchers from the University of Louisville, said: "We believe these finding are very significant.   Our results indicate that cardiac stem cells can markedly improve the contractile function of the heart"

Prof Peter Weissberg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said - "This is positive, but the crucial next steps are to see whether this improvement is confirmed in the final completed trial."

Source: The Lancet