Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 8249 Location: Fingerlakes - NY usa
Scientists 'Grow' New Heart - And Get It Beating
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It looks like a heart.
It beats like a heart.
And it has the capability to keep someone alive like a heart.
But this amazing organ wasn't part of someone's original equipment. Instead scientists grew it in a lab. And they believe it might one day lead to new ways of treating everything from cardiac disease to transplants.
If this sounds almost inhuman, it is. The ticker actually started as the heart of a dead rat, and was taken by researchers at the University of Minnesota and "washed" of its original cells. That left a shell of the organ which the scientists then injected with new cells culled from newborn rodents. Their excitement was unbounded when the organ started beating on its own.
Those behind the project admit it has a Frankenstein-like element to it, but it also holds so much promise that's its more boon than bane. "We really have the audacity to claim to build a functional organ from scratch so to speak," outlines Dr. Doris Taylor. "We're willing to admit that it's a crazy idea."
But what it portends is anything but crazy. The researchers admit a rat heart will never be compatible with humans - but a pig heart might be. As distasteful as that might sound, the chance that it could save the lives of thousands of patients waiting for transplants that are in too short a supply makes it worth exploring.
"Three thousand people a year don't have other options," Taylor explains. "We want to make a difference."
She envisions a system where a pig heart could be "washed", injected with stem cells from a potential recipient and literally grown from scratch, before being inserted back into the patient. Rejection would be unlikely, since the body would recognize it as its own.
"What we've done is hopefully open a door to the idea that we can actually begin to build, not just pieces of tissue and organs," Taylor suggests. "But build organs."
And the method brings with it the potential for growing other organs - including livers, kidneys and lungs.
As always with these kinds of breakthroughs, the experts warn there's still a lot of bugs to be worked out, including religious objections to the idea of utilizing pig hearts and further development of the concept before it's put into use.
But the fact they can do it is seen as a huge breakthrough that may one day save the lives of millions.
