Finally, a ‘Heart Patch’ to mend your broken heart

We are one step closer to the goal of repairing dead heart muscle in human beings, because of a research breakthrough by biomedical engineers at Duke University. The researchers have succeeded in creating a fully functioning artificial human heart muscle large enough to patch the area typically seen in patients who have suffered a heart attack.

The study was published on line in Nature Communications on November 28, 2017.

Ilia Shadrin, a biomedical engineering doctoral student at Duke University and first author on the study said in a newsletter, "Right now, virtually all existing therapies are aimed at reducing the symptoms from the damage that's already been done to the heart, but no approaches have been able to replace the muscle that's lost, because once it's dead, it does not grow back on its own. This is a way that we could replace lost muscle with tissue made outside the body."

It is estimated that around 12 million people worldwide suffer for myocardial infarction and continue living with the damaged tissue that could not contract or send electrical signals, both of which are necessary for proper heart function.

The heart patch is grown from human pluripotent stem cells and contains a myriad of different type of cells like cardiomyocytes, fibroblasts, and endothelial and smooth muscle cells, to create a tissue patch similar to functioning heart muscle. The patch can secrete enzymes and growth hormone that could help in recovering from the ischemic damage.

All these cells are put in specific combination in a jelly-like substance, where they reorganize and grow into functioning tissue. Each individual tissue patch has to be ‘custom made’ in separate container that needs a rocking and swaying motion, instead of being static.

Currently, these patches have been successfully implanted into animal hearts. The researchers have to make many modifications to create the same tissue for human heart like increasing the thickness and vascularization.

Here is the video by Duke University showing the patch contracting on its own, a 3D visualization of the patch’s cells, and the rocking bath that proved critical to the heart patch’s record-breaking size.

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