Beating heart tissue grown in lab

An international team of cell biologists has created beating heart tissue culture in a test tube. It is a huge step towards the advent of lab-grown heart-tissue transplants. Report about the breaking research brought journal Nature.

The research team led by Gordon Keller of the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Toronto, Canada, created the heart cells from human embryonic stem cells. Researchers found that treating the embryonic stem cells with growth factors encourage them to develop into cardiovascular progenitor cells which have the potential to become any of three specialized types of heart cell — two muscle cell types (cardiomyocytes and vascular smooth muscle) and endothelial cells.

Image of heart-tissue cells grown in a test tube. Credit: Lei Yang

When these progenitor cells were grown in a dish, they developed their own intrinsic 'heartbeat'. What's more, when researchers transplanted a mixture of the three cell types into the hearts of mice with simulated heart disease, their heart function improved significantly. Although not yet tested in humans, the technique could offer a useful way to patch up heart muscle damaged by a heart attack.

Source: http://www.nature.com