A team of scientists have said that they have successfully turned patients' own skin cells into healthy heart muscle in laboratory experiment.

They believe that the experiment will lead to development of treatments used to treat heart failure patients. As the cells are from the patient, it avoids the problem of tissue rejection, the scientists said.

Trials on animals have resulted in promising results but the experimental treatment is still years away from being offered to the patients.

Scientists are beginning to use stem cells to treat a variety of heart problems and other conditions like diabetes, Parkinsons disease or Alzheimer's. The team of scientists in Israel took skin cells from two men with heart failure and then mixed the cells with a mixture of genes and chemicals in the lab to create the stem cell treatment.

Lead researcher Professor Lior Gepstein, said, "What is new and exciting about our research is that we have shown that it's possible to take skin cells from an elderly patient with advanced heart failure and end up with his own beating cells in a laboratory dish that are healthy and young - the equivalent to the stage of his heart cells when just born."