https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-026-04605-1

https://en.people.cn/n3/2026/0826/c90000-20492696.html

Researchers at the Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Jiangsu Province, have developed a method to combine by-pass operation with injected allogenic pluripotent cardiomyocytes to replace necrotic heart tissue, enabling both vascular recanalization and myocardial regeneration.

Twelve-month follow-up data showed that 90 percent of the patients who received the cell therapy recovered to New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class II, reporting significant relief from shortness of breath and chest tightness during daily activities. In the bypass-only control group, this figure was 60 percent. Patients in the cell therapy group also posted an average gain of 168.8 meters in the six-minute walk test, nearly double the control group’s improvement. Cardiac pumping function diverged further: stroke volume increased in the treatment group but declined in the control group.

Over the follow-up period, no patient developed tumors or sustained malignant arrhythmias.

The cell product used in the trial, HiCM-188, can be produced and stored in standardized batches, bypassing the lengthy customization required for patient-specific cell products — a critical advantage given that heart transplants are out of reach for most end-stage patients due to a chronic shortage of donors.