ANN ARBOR, Mich., April 17, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Aastrom Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq:ASTM), a leading regenerative medicine company, today announced encouraging data from the first two compassionate use patients treated with the Company's autologous stem cell therapy for dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a type of severe chronic heart failure. Hans Michael Klein, M.D., Professor of Cardiac Surgery at the Dusseldorf University Hospital in Dusseldorf, Germany performed the first human application of Aastrom's Cardiac Repair Cell (CRC) product through direct injection into the heart muscle during open heart surgery in two patients late in 2007. Due to the promising results from these first patients using the CRC treatment, Dr. Klein's clinical activity is ongoing and additional patients are being evaluated for this treatment.
