'Laser Pacemaker' Controls Heartbeat

Scientists from Case Western Reserve University and Vanderbilt University are performing research on “laser pacemakers.” Usual pacemakers are electrically-paced where, as Case Western scientist Michael Jenkins puts it, one “dumps current into the heart and it goes everywhere.” With laser beams, energy can be placed in a specific location.

Tests were performed on the developing heart of a quail. A tiny fiber optic cable is extended until it almost touches the heart, and then millisecond-long pulses of light are pumped through the fiber into the heart. The laser heats up one side of the heart, opening an ion channel in the cell membrane. Charged particles flow out of the channel, creating an electrical impulse that makes the heart contract.

These laser-based pacemakers have potential to be more precise (precise enough to pace a single cell), less invasive, and less damaging than electric pacemakers. Electric pacemakers can destroy heart cells, where as the laser did not seem to damage the heart tissue in the quail experiment. Laser pacemakers also require less energy.

Laser beam technology is still under development and could eventually be applied to other areas of the body, such as restoring hearing in the deaf, returning sight to the blind, and giving touch to amputees.

I find this interesting because I typically think of lasers as being used to cut through things. However, this article shows that lasers can have uses besides that. It reminds me of the “optical tweezers” Dr. Wasser showed us in class today, which use laser beams to attract and “hold” organelles and microscopic organisms. And also, let’s face it – lasers are just cool.

Source:
http://news.discovery.com/tech/laser-heart-pacemaker.html
Article by Eric Bland - August 19, 2010

Lainy Dromgoole, VTPP 434-501