An important step for science was achieved today when a team of scientists was able to create an actual beating heart in a lab. This is a vital step forward towards the ability to replicate human organs for transplants in the future. Researchers at the University of Minnesota successfully grew the heart of rat by using stem cells.
The process towards creating this beating heart was complicated and required numerous techniques. First, they removed all of the dead cells from a dead rat’s heart. They left behind the valves and the outer tissue to act as a template for the new heart. Once this was completed, new stem cells were injected. In just two weeks, these cells joined together to grow a new heart that was able to beat, pump blood and even produce electrical impulses.
It is believed that this same process could easily be replicated for humans. Doctors would need to remove stem cells from the patient’s bone marrow. A donor heart from a cadaver would be required to form the framework for a new heart. Then, the patient’s stem cells could be injected into this framework to create a brand new heart. It may even be possible to achieve the same result with other organs.
Dr. Doris A. Taylor, the head of the research group at the University of Minnesota stated, “We just took nature’s own building blocks to build a new organ. Give nature the tools, and get out of the way.” Although this field has been advancing rapidly in recent years, no one has yet tried her experiment. Todd N. McAllister of Cytograft Tissue Engineering in Novato, Calif., stated, “Doris Taylor’s work is one of those maddeningly simple ideas that you knock yourself on the head, saying, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ ”
Although Taylor has experience in gene therapy at her previous position with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, NY, this is her first tissue regeneration experiment. Her initial reason for switching was her discovery that in order to generate a new organ, you needed a pre-existing structure for the new cells to work with.
She is now moving on to working with a pig’s heart to see if the results can be duplicated with a different animal. If she is successful in this next step, it will put us that much closer to regenerating human organs, since they are so similar in form to a pig’s. She stated, “If it works, it means that there will be many more organs available for transplants. The hope is that we have created a tool that will really make people think differently and provide an opportunity to create new options for tissue engineering and for patients who need organs.”
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