PRINTING MUSCLE

“Organovo's 3-D printer creates human tissues that could help speed drug discovery”

Research is being currently done in the startup of San Diego by Organovo Chirag Khaitwala who built a thin layer of smooth muscle. The procedure itself utilizes a thick layer of “human skeletal muscle” as a cartridge. It is loaded into the 3-D printer which then produces a “uniform, closely spaced lines in a petri dish”. This type of arrangement works because the cells communicate and grow forming a working muscle tissue. Unlike other ink-jet printers, this technology lets cells interact in cell deposit. They are incubated which promotes them to exchange chemical signals. Once printed, the cells are bundled into a paste to promote growth and migration. For example, “Muscle cells orient themselves in the same direction to create tissue that contract”.

Organovo has developed cells of “cardiac muscle, lungs and blood vessels”. Although, the lab achieved in synthesizing small pieces of tissue, in fact, the goal is to make organs through printers for transplant and for drug development. This technique fills a critical need and saves drug industries billions of dollars because researchers can use this tissue from 3-D printers to perform clinical trials and it can help them detect drug toxicity earlier than other tests.

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/39687/?mod=chthumb

Gene Therapy Helps Patients With Hemophilia

“During coagulation, erythrocytes become trapped in a
fibrous mesh with the help of clotting factor IX”

A recent study from the University College London and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital reported that gene therapy cells might protect hemophilia B patients from bleeding extensively. This is truly a “landmark case” because Hemophilia is a rare inherited disorder where the blood does not undergo the coagulation process appropriately. “As a result, patients experience bleeding after injury. This type of hemorrhage can potentially damage organs and tissues”. The treatment for this disorder is called replacement therapy and this procedure must be repeated regularly “which carries risks”. The alternative method was gene therapy where the scientists conducted this study on “four patients who went through medium doses of therapy have generated enough clotting factor IX themselves that they ceased to get preventive infusions”. The “driving force” for this therapy is the virus called “AAV-8” that targeted liver cells which naturally produce clotting factor IX. Moreover, this virus does not interfere with the DNA or the cells’ normal function. So, this makes it an ideal source for the therapy. Only liver inflammation was seen in these patients, but no other side effects emerged.
Although there were previous studies that enable the scientists to think that gene therapy could be promising for correcting disorders such as hemophilia, they, in fact, produced disappointing results. According to NHLBI Director Dr. Susan, results from this study might provide “a promising step to further findings”.


http://www.nih.gov/researchmatters/december2011/12192011hemophilia.htm

Minimally Invasive Aortic Valve Replacement versus Surgery Procedure

Aortic valve Stenosis is a disorder where the aortic valve is constricted because of calcified bicuspid valves. In turn, this formation of the valve causes disrupted blood circulation back to the heart. Although, the options for treatment include surgery which replaces the “native valve”, in fact, “about 30% of the patients cannot go through surgery procedure because of factors such as age or poor health”(Business Week). One of the methods to solve this issue is the minimally invasive technique. It is more specifically known as the transcatheter aortic-valve implantation or TAVI. The transcatheter method involves the insertion of a catheter through femoral artery to the heart. Then, the balloon inflates to allow for circulation. This replaces the damaged valve with “bioprosthetic valve”. The article discusses about a blind clinical study that was conducted to assess the surgical versus transcatheter methods for aortic valve replacement. The two year study, sponsored by “Edward Lifesciences, enrolled about 699 patients in 22 medical centers”(NEJM). The results were varied and mixed. The surgical method was advantageous to some extents as was the minimally invasive method. In addition to reducing the stay in intensive care unit and decreasing the symptoms, this transcatheter method increased the one year survival rate in “20% of the patients”.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1103510#t=articleDiscussion
http://www.healthjockey.com/images/lotus-valve-system.jpg
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/643458.html