MIT Researchers Grow Beating Heart Tissue

Iphtashu Fitz writes "Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology report that they have been able to grow heart tissue the size of a dime from cells harvested from rats. When an electrical impulse is passed through the tissue it twitches like a beating heart. This represents the first time scientists have succeeded in using an electrical current to produce dense heart tissue that beats in a rhythm mimicking that of a live animal's heart. The next step for the researchers is to patch damaged hearts of other rats to see if it can behave like a cardiac bandage. If successful this could eventually lead to treatments for heart attacks and other cardiac diseases that can damage and kill large amounts of heart muscle cells."

Comments

Cool

[OAB_X]

It certainly has a lot of "wow" factor to it. But it will probably not be ready for humans for several years. When they start doing things like this with human hearts start getting excited. After all, while rats are similar to humans in that they are mammals, its not like you can use rat heart cells in humans, at least, and have it work well.

Igor, raise the lightning rod!

[Engradius]

ITS ALIVE, its alive!!!!!

Re:Don't stop there

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

No, some day they'll dump the stupid concept that you should be unaltered to enter the Olympics. When that happens the Olympics will become truly spectacular as competitors use training and a mixture of electronic, chemical and biological enhancement to perform feats that are currently undreamt of by athletes. Athletes who refuse to modify themselves will be seen as a curiously old-fashioned bunch of old fuddy duddies.