COIMBATORE: A city hospital has claimed to have successfully carried out stem cell transplantation on a 70-year-old woman suffering from serious heart ailments.

The stem cell was transplanted by injecting it into the heart muscles through coronary arteries on December 28, chairman of K G hospital G Bakthavatsalam told reporters here last evening.

The woman, with coronary artery disease, low heart pumping capacity (Dilated Cardio Myopathy) with diabetes, chronic renal failure and congestive heart failure, had undergone a Coronary Angioplasty four years ago.

She had complaints of chest pain and low oxygen level and was admitted to the hospital on December 22.

Stem cells taken from the patient's bone marrow was sent to the Chennai Process Centre of Nichi-in Centre for Regenerative Medicine (NCRM) on December 27 night by train and was air-freighted the next day by obtaining a special exemption to ensure that it was not X-ray screened, he said.

The stem cell was transplanted at 12 noon on December 28 and the treatment would take one to six months' time to yield results, he said.

The transplanted cells make their way into the marrow cavities and begin creating new bone marrow and stem cells, he said, adding it can take several weeks for the blood counts to begin normalising.

The stem cell therapy department, headed by Dr Y Y Rao, is carrying out stem cell research in coordination with Japan-based NCRM, Bakthavatsalam said