Matters of the heart. Part. 3, Brave new heart.

Heart Failure is the second biggest killer disease, after Lung Cancer. The programme examines current research into new methods of treatment which should lead to 'repair and re-conditioning' of the heart, and move away from the current treatments, which have tended towards 'remove and discard', where treatment has been focused on heart replacement. The programmes focuses on three main areas of research, Gene Therapy, where the primary interest is on Causative Genes, which stimulate the heart into repairing itself, Stem Cell Therapy, where heart cells are injected into the blood stream from where they make their own way to the myocardium and help the damaged heart repair itself, and Tissue Engineering, where new stem cells are grown from the bone marrow of embryos. Tissue Engineering research is still the subject of much controversy as it centres on Embryo Research. The programme also discusses, Imaging, a new system which is designed to assist the surgeon during Open Heart Surgery, fluorescent agents are injected into the blood vessals and enable the heart cells to show up on a screen, dead cells will appear as darkened.