A Pacemaker Made From Your Own Cells

FiReaNGeL writes to tell us that researchers at the Children's Hospital in Boston are on the road to crafting a pacemaker from living cells instead of an artificial implant. From the article: "When the engineered tissue was implanted into rats, between the right atrium and right ventricle, the implanted cells integrated with the surrounding heart tissue and electrically coupled to neighboring heart cells. Optical mapping of the heart showed that in nearly a third of the hearts, the engineered tissue had established an electrical conduction pathway, which disappeared when the implants were destroyed. The implants remained functional through the animals' lifespan (about 3 years)."

Comments

Re:This is awesome

[mykhailjw]

YOU CAN HAVE A MRI AS LONG AS YOUR CARDIOLOGIST IS NOT A DUMB ASS. Quit spreading this lie. I work for a Cardiac electrophysiologist and we do these every week. Yes there are some risks and the patient needs to be monitored but it can be done and it is safe.