Japan begins to apply health insurance to heart surgery using iPS cells

(Tokyo = Yonhap News) Correspondent Cho Seong-mi = Local media reported on the 30th that surgery using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) was performed in Japan under the coverage of medical insurance.

The day before, a surgery was performed at the Osaka Police Hospital to transplant 'Reheart', a regenerative medicine product that treats heart disease with induced pluripotent stem cells, to a female patient in her 50s who had suffered from myocardial infarction.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the patient was in stable condition after surgery.

Induced pluripotent stem cells refer to cells that are injected with specific genes into differentiated somatic cells, such as skin cells, rather than fertilized eggs or eggs, to give them stem cell properties and then induce differentiation into various body tissues.

Last March, Japanese health authorities became the first in the world to approve Rihart, developed to treat severe heart failure, and AmChepri, developed to treat Parkinson's disease, on a conditional and limited basis for the first time in the world. Starting this month, it was also decided to apply medical insurance.

Health authorities plan to collect all data on the use of these products for treatment over the next seven years, determine their efficacy, and then decide whether to grant full approval.

Rihart, developed by a venture company starting at Osaka University, promotes blood vessel regeneration by attaching a sheet of myocardial cells to the heart.

Yoshiki Sawa, a special professor (cardiovascular surgery) at Osaka University who led the product development and performed the surgery, said that the use of the induced pluripotent stem cell treatment under insurance coverage is significant and said, "I want to save at least one more life by applying this treatment to patients around the world."

In 2020, Professor Sawa became the first in the world to transplant heart muscle tissue cultured from induced pluripotent stem cells to a heart disease patient.