Ernie Lively is a actor in America, he had suffered severe heart attack in 2003. Luckily he survived from this accident, but unfortunately his heart was deteriorating after that. His heart became malfunctioning that the blood leaving his heart gradually decline.
Amit Patel, M.D., director of Clinical Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering and an associate professor in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Utah School of Medicine meet with Ernie Lively. Ernie Lively became his patient. Patel found that usual treatment were not working on Lively as his aorta and coronary arteries were dying. Thereby, Patel uses stem cell therapy.
“This month, Lively got his wish when he became the first patient in the world to undergo retrograde gene therapy at University of Utah Hospital, a novel procedure designed to deliver stem cells to the heart to repair damaged muscle and arteries in the most minimally invasive way possible.”
The unique gene therapy doesn’t involve viruses (a rarity for gene therapy, Patel notes) and is pure human DNA infused into patients. The DNA, called SDF-1, is a naturally occurring substance in the body that becomes a homing signal for a patient’s body to use its own stem cells to go to the site of an injury.
There are many people in the world suffering from heart diseases, stem cell therapy indeed can help them to tackle diseases. The first success treatment on Lively can obviously bring hope to all the patient. As it does not involve viral factors, it is regarded as safe therapy. Hope this treatment can be popular and heal more patient.
Reference:
Historic First Procedure Performed Using Technique of Retrograde Gene Therapy On Human Heart: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131127170105.htm
darrencheng529 
Wow, this is really new to me. I think with this new technology, the life span of each person will be longer! However, this can never be in used in undeveloped countries. 😦
As the new technology requires a large sum of developing fee, the new drug are always delux, and the undeveloped countries will never afford them.