Using The Body's Own Stem Cells To Grow New Arteries

Nov. 12 -- Blocked arteries are dangerous wherever they occur and if you get a blockage in your legs, the can cause such excruciating pain walking can be difficult.

Now there's a new treatment that allows patients to grow new healthy blood vessels to improve circulation.

What's hard work for most of us is the good life for Tom Reynolds. Life on the farm became difficult last year.

Tom Reynolds, 77-Years-Old: "I would have a shooting pain that would hit me in, right in my buttocks."

Tom had peripheral vascular disease, where the arteries supplying blood to his legs became blocked. Left untreated, gangrene can occur.

Dr. Arshed Quyyumi, Cardiologist: "It can be pretty devastating. The options are very limited often. This is how amputations occur."

Doctors told tom there was nothing they could do for him, and he had visions of life in a wheelchair.

Tom Reynolds, 77-Years-Old: "It's the most depressing thing you can ever experience."

But then Tom found out about a study on a new option -- a growth factor called GMCSF. When injected into patients, it stimulates bone marrow to release stem cells -- helping the body form new arteries.

Dr. Arshed Quyyumi, Cardiologist: "The implications, I think, are very exciting because one way we think that cardiovascular disease progression can be impeded and even reversed is by improving your blood vessel function."

That means fewer heart attacks, strokes, and amputations.

Tom Reynolds, 77-Years-Old: "It's just like an additional life, really."

Tom's enjoying his time on the farm with his son Tim and has replaced his visions of wheelchairs with a new scene.

Study results showed patients' blood vessel function improved by up to 60 percent. They were also able to exercise longer without pain. Larger studies are needed before this treatment would become widely used.

Doctors say this concept could potentially be applied for blocked arteries carrying blood to both the heart and the brain.

Research summary.

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