Menstrual blood to save hearts?

At the American College of Cardiology annual meeting, Abstracts 921-105 and 921-107 by researchers at the Keio University School of Medicine in Japan examined the use of endometrial cells to mimic heart muscle.  The two studies derived endometrial cells from either umbilical cord blood or from menstrual blood.  In both cases, some of the endometrial cells were able to contract simultaneously (roughly half the cells from menstrual blood and nearly all the cells from cord blood).  Both sets of cells also exhibited cardiac gene expression and response to the chemicals which trigger cardiac contractions.  The cord blood study went further, demonstrating that half the stem cells transformed into cardiomyocytes (primitive cardiac cells) in vitro.

This is the first study to show that menstrual blood has "CardioMyogenic" potential.