New Heart Created on Old Heart Scaffolding!
Jan 14 at 4:04pm by Aileen
The exciting science news this week leads with a real shocker – researchers at the University of Minnesota have created a beating heart in the laboratory! This landmark achievement represents a stunning advance toward the dream of growing new organs for transplant from the patient’s own marrow stem cells.
Using a process called “whole organ decellularization,” new hearts were grown from dead rat and pig hearts from which all cells are removed, leaving only the extracellular matrix – the framework between the cells that gives form to the organ. Dr. Doris A. Taylor, head of the team that created the beating rat heart, described the guiding principle for the project -
“…give nature the tools, and get out of the way.”
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