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RIO DE JANEIRO : Brazil announced Wednesday the launch of an ambitious experimental program to use stem cells to treat heart diseases.
"The project which Brazil is developing is unique in the world, in the number of case studies -- 1,200 patients -- and the number of institutions involved, 40 across the whole country," a ministry official told AFP.
The five-million-dollar study aims at evaluating the eventual replacement of traditional cardiac treatments such as heart grafts with a therapy using stem cells.
The ministry said that in Brazil, where four million people suffer from serious heart problems, 200,000 lives could be saved within three years if the therapy proves effective.
It could also reduce the government's costs for heart treatment by 14.2 million dollars a month, the ministry said.
In the study, the 1,200 test subjects will be divided into groups of 300, classified by their affliction. Half will receive traditional drug or surgical treatments, and the other half will be given stem cell grafts from their own bone marrow.
Brazil's health ministry will also finance this year studies with stem cells originating in umbilical cords and from adult patients for treating spinal cord ailments, diabetes and degenerative nerve disorders like Alzheimer's disease.
Physicians in Argentina recently reported success in treating diabetes with stem cells injected into the pancreas, while in Japan, researchers announced in January success in treating monkeys with Parkinson's disease using stem cell transplants.
- AFP
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