Researchers at Duke University tackle one of the leading causes of death ...
By Militza Richard
Bioengineers at Duke University believe they have made an important first step toward growing a living “heart patch.” Using a mold of their own design, researchers fashioned a three-dimensional "patch" made up of heart muscle cells known as cardiomyocytes. The new tissue, created using mouse embryonic stem cells, demonstrated the ability to contract and to conduct electrical impulses, two of the most important attributes of heart tissue.
While researchers are excited about the development, they acknowledge there is still a long way to go. The experiments show that creating a patch should work in principle, but more research is needed before any patch could be implanted into a human with heart disease. "The use of fibrin as a structural material allowed us to grow thicker, three-dimensional patches, which would be essential for the delivery of therapeutic doses of cells. One of the major challenges then would be establishing a blood vessel supply to sustain the patch,” said assistant professor Nenad Bursac who led the experiments.
The researchers also plan to test the model using non-embryonic stem cells. This provides many benefits for use in humans, both scientific and ethical, said Bursac. According to recent studies, some cells from adult humans can be reprogrammed to become similar to embryonic cells.
"Human cardiomyocytes tend to grow a lot slower than those of mice," Bursac said. "Since it takes nine months for the human heart to complete development, we need to find a way to get the cells to grow faster while maintaining the same essential properties of native cells."
Using a patient’s own cells would also prevent a negative immune system reaction to the patch, Bursac added.
Source: www.gizmag.com