A hospital in eastern China reports that a stem-cell therapy improves outcomes for patients with severe heart failure. The results come from a phase 2 clinical study conducted at Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, affiliated with Nanjing University, and describe substantial recovery in heart function for most participants.
The hospital releases long-term follow-up results, which are published in the journal *Nature Medicine*. Reported improvements include better performance on a six-minute walking test, a measure often used to assess functional capacity in heart failure. Across the coverage, the trial’s headline finding is that around 90% of patients show significant recovery after receiving the reprogrammed stem-cell treatment.
The articles note the treatment’s proposed mechanism differs from regrowing dead heart muscle: while non-viable heart tissue cannot be replaced, the therapy is presented as potentially helping damaged or ageing hearts recover by supporting new function. Both outlets frame the study as a landmark update based on the follow-up data, though they emphasize different aspects—functional test performance versus the overall recovery proportion.
