Stem Cells to help Damaged Hearts

Glenn Gaudette, who is the assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, along with a research team, has potentially found a way to use stem cells in repairing damaged tissue, more specifically cardiac muslces damaged by heart attack. There method uses human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs), which come from the bone marrow and are pluripotent.

The first methods included injecting the cells into the bloodstream or directly into the heart, however this did not prove sufficient because less than 15% of the cells survived or were washed away.

To solve this problem, the team developed a scaffold made of biopolymer microthreads. These are made up of fibrin, a protein that helps blood clot. These threads can be manipulated into different tensile strength and dissolving rates. The research team took out the bundles of thread after they were placed in human tissue to find that the majority of the stem cells remained alive. Another advantage to using the hMSCs on these small bundles is that the microthreads began to differentiate into different types of cells as if to support the cardiac muscle.

This article was very interesting to me, especially since we have discussed stem cells and differentiation in class. It pertains to me because these are the projects and research that I could be doing in the future.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101209113546.htm

Alicia Capps