The world’s only clinical trial in which patients with heart failure are implanted with artificial heart tissue to permanently strengthen the heart muscle has reached its first important milestone: the determination of the maximum safe dose was completed after treatment of 10 patients. The BioVAT-HF-DZHK20 study is conducted at the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) and the University Hospital SchleswigHolstein (UKSH), Campus Lübeck, and is funded by the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) and Repairon GmbH.
“For the first time, we were able to observe the build-up of real cardiac muscle in the human heart. Now we are looking forward to the further evaluation of the clinical data after the dose finding has been completed,” says MBExC member Prof. Dr. Wolfram Hubertus Zimmermann, Director of the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the UMG and scientific leader of the BioVAT-HF study.
The press release of the DZHK (in German) can be found here.
Prof. Dr. Wolfram Hubertus Zimmermann, Director of the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the UMG. Photo: MBExC / spförtner
