Scientists Create Heart Muscle With Built-In Blood Supply

Scientists in Israel have recently developed cardiac tissue using embryonic stem cells that comes complete with blood vessels. It has the potential to replace damaged heart muscle after a heart attack. The current problem with tissue transplanting is that the body and new tissue often do not work well together or reject each other. With the blood vessels already in the tissue, they hope the compatibility will be better and the tissue survival rate would increase.

The process of making the tissue involves using a sponge-like scaffold to provide support for the cardiac muscle cells and the blood vessel cells to grow together with another cell called embryonic fibroblasts. After enough time is aloud for the tissue to develop, it could then be transplanted into the body. The next step for the researchers is to transplant tissue into animals and test the outcome before trying it on humans.

As someone who is considering cardiology or cardiovascular surgery, the potential of this new treatment is huge. Hundreds of thousands of lives can be saved and extended with the help of new heart tissue. If I do end up in that particular area of medicine, I will probably become very familiar with the treatment and the surgery and its effects on my patients.

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/526706/