The fact remains that they are already doing it. Heart tissue is
been restored using stem cells in a location were it truly matters.
Thus this will available far quicker than imagined.
What has recently become apparent is that injection of stem cells
made from one's own skin cells can be targeted to restore damaged
tissue anywhere. There is obviously a lot more to it than that but
it is still that simple.
If we are lucky, a whole slew of ailments can be treated this way
successfully.
Of course, the holy grail here is the restoration of brain damage.
Everything else should be easy in comparison.
All I know is that even my dentist has finally become optimistic. We
all want to be able to punch out new nerves and grow new teeth.
Stem cells could be
used to make biological pacemaker for heart patients
Injections of heart
muscle created from patients’ own skin cells could save them from
needing surgery to implant artificial pacemakers that regulate their
heartbeat, following new research.
Scientists have
grown fully functional heart muscles by reprogramming stem cells and
skin cells from patients. They found that these reprogrammed
cells can “reset” the rhythm of any unhealthy heart tissue that
is placed around them.
The researchers
believe that patients suffering from irregular or slow heart beats
could be treated with an injection of new heart cells grown from stem
cells to create a “biological pacemaker” that will regulate their
heartbeat.
Currently patients who
have suffered heart attacks that cause their heart to pump out of
sync or who suffer from irregular heartbeats have to undergo surgery
where a battery powered pacemaker is fitted to control the organ’s
rhythm.
There are
approximately 25,000 pacemakers fitted each year in the UK.
Dr Oren Caspi, from
the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology who has been carrying out
the research, said the heart cells they had created appeared to
behave like young, healthy heart tissue found in new born babies.
He said: “We found
that the electrical signal from the heart cells we created
synchronised the beat of any surrounding heart tissue.
“We have seen this
happen in dishes in the laboratory and in animal models.
When we integrated the cells into the hearts of pigs, they were paced
by the cells that were injected.
“It seems that the
cells that beat fastest control the pace, so it could be
used to replace artificial pacemakers for people with slow or
irregular heartbeats.”
Dr Caspi and his
colleague Professor Lior Gepstein earlier this year became the first
scientists in the world to generate beating heart cells by
reprogramming skin cells taken from patients.
They converted the
adult skin into a type of cell known as induced pluripotent stem
cells, which have the potential to develop into any tissue found in
the body. By altering the conditions they were grown in, the cells
then developed into fully functioning heart cells.
The researchers
believe it will be possible to use skin cells from patients to create
injectable biological pacemakers – reducing the risk of them being
rejected by the patients body.
They are now working
with clinical heart specialists in a bid to trail the treatment in
human patients.
Dr Caspi said: “We
are working with clinicians to take some of our data to the clinic,
but it is still a very new technology so there is still a lot of
research to be done before any treatments will emerge.”
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