An Australian-led team has for the first time regenerated heart muscle in several primates by grafting specialised tissue grown from human embryonic stem cells, a procedure that could be trialled in humans with heart failure in a few years.

Researchers injected about a billion heart muscle cells onto the hearts of seven pigtail macaque monkeys to repair damage caused by a heart attack, which kills large numbers of the organ's muscle cells.

The breakthrough procedure offers a potential therapy for people with chronic heart failure, which kills more than 20,000 Australians each year, and could replace the need for heart transplants in these people.

The cardiologist who conducted the experiments, James Chong, from the University of Sydney and the Westmead Millennium Institute, said with further research and funding he hoped to start clinical trials in humans in a few years.