Researchers from the University of Osaka, Japan, have announced that they have successfully performed the very first transplant of heart muscles grown in the laboratory. Rather than replacing the entire heart of their patient, the scientists placed biodegradable leaves containing heart muscle cells on the damaged areas of the heart. If the rest of this procedure goes as planned, it could possibly eliminate the need for full heart transplants for many cases.
To grow heart muscle cells in the laboratory, the team used the patient’s induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). These are stem cells that researchers create from a sample of cells (often from the skin or blood) and reprogramming them in their embryonic pluripotent state.
At this point, they can make iSP cells become “the type of cell they want”. In the case of this Japanese study, the researchers created heart muscle cells from iSP cells before placing them on thin biodegradable leaves.
The patient who received the transplant has ischemic cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart has trouble pumping blood because the muscles are not getting enough.
Regenerate heart cells to avoid heart transplantation
In severe cases, this condition may require a heart transplant. And this is where the Osaka University team comes in. The researchers believe that the muscle cells placed on the leaf, secreting a protein, can help regenerate blood vessels, thereby improving the patient’s heart function. Sufficient regeneration to avoid heart transplantation.
Yoshiki Sawa, professor at the Osaka University Cardiovascular Surgery Unit, held a press conference Monday in Suita, Osaka, about the first-ever transplant of induced heart muscle cells from induced pluripotent stem cells. Credits: KYODO
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On the same subject: First 3D impression of a vascularized heart created from the patient’s biological material
The researchers plan to monitor the patient for a year, and they hope to perform the same procedure on nine other people with the same disease over the next three years.
If the clinical trials go ahead as planned, the procedure could become an essential alternative to heart transplants. Not only is it much easier to get iPS cells than finding an appropriate donor heart, but a recipient’s immune system is also more likely to tolerate stem cells rather than a new organ.
” I hope that (stem cell transplant) will become medical technology that will save as many people as possible, because I have met many patients that I have not been able to save. “Said the Japan Times researcher Yoshiki Sawa at the press conference.
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