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Researchers Create Beating Heart In Lab

Posted by kdawson on from the keeps-on-ticking dept.

Sunday Scientist writes "Minnesota researchers have created a beating heart in the laboratory. In a process called whole organ decellularization, they grew functioning heart tissue by using dead rat and pig hearts as a sort of flesh matrix, and reseeding them with a mixture of live cells. The goal is to grow replacement parts, using their own stem cells, for people born with defective tickers or experiencing heart failure."

14 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. Wizard of Oz by hack++slash · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tin Man will be so pleased.

    --
    To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
  2. Unthinkable just 25 years ago by CRCulver · · Score: 4, Interesting

    With the advances in biotechnology, it's amusing to think that Larry Niven in his Gil "The Arm" Hamilton stories (collected in Flatlander ) foresaw a future where you'd get the death penalty for just about anything just so that the state could rip out your organs for donation into someone needing it. In Niven's future history, the use of organ transplants ends only hundreds of years in the future when alloplasty ("gadgets instead of organs") is developed. Now, in just 2007, we're getting close to synthesizing real organs instead of transplanting or making little machines.

    1. Re:Unthinkable just 25 years ago by cnettel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or, maybe, like in many kinds of SF, the specifics of technology available is just as well chosen to make the story interesting, even in hard SF. It's supposed to tickle your imagination, not as a technology roadmap. Hence, to paint the picture of a society where this becomes common practice over the course of generations, of course you need to stipulate that the problem is hard, just like some people chose to assume that somewhat-strong AI or FTL drive is far more feasible than it was maybe reasonable to assume.

    2. Re:Unthinkable just 25 years ago by Firethorn · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In this case, I figure that the creator was going for serious SciFi, not just a mcguffin to make the story interesting. You just have to remember that even the most expert SciFi writer isn't going to be 100% of on the science of his day - much less how it'll play out in the future.

      Wikipedia placed the publish date of "The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton" in 1976, The first successful kidney transplant was in 1954(for identical twins, so no rejection)and the first human heart & liver transplants were in 1967.

      So, at the time the story was written - humanity seemed to be on a steady march towards being able to transplant more and more organs. Cloning hadn't made the news yet. Stem cells were hardly known to the public.

      So I could see an author, in 1976, positing that eventually our desire for replacement organs might warp society a bit. The usage of convicts sentenced to death for this would be the mcguffin, as would the expansion of death penalty cases.

      Meanwhile, 30 years later we're getting close to being able to clone (just)organs, we've discovered making computers fast and small is easier than large and smart, we have NOT conquered the human mind, space, or the sea like the writers of the '50s thought.

      At least we aren't quite as screwed up as the author of 'soylent green' would have you believe.

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
    3. Re:Unthinkable just 25 years ago by ppanon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, Niven's government ordered organ collection stories may not have been too far off either if Falun Dafa practitioners are to be believed. There's been ongoing rumours of organlegging in Asia for a while, and even the UK is being more aggressive about organ collection.

      The advantage of using your own stem cells instead of parts of some poor sap cut up for his crimes or beliefs, is that the former should be less subject to rejection. Assuming they ever get this approach viable for use in humans. I'm hoping so because, as the population becomes an increasingly aged one in Western countries, the pressure on organ banks is going to increase. And as the population becomes increasingly obese, the supply of healthy candidates for organ donations is only going to decrease.

      Oh well, it could be worse. Transplants could have been available back when people thought debtor's prison was a good idea.

      --
      Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
  3. Interesting engineering opportunities by G4from128k · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This presents a long-term opportunity for the next phase in body modification. Who says that a "replacement" organ must be identical to the original equipment? Perhaps athletes will opt for an enlarged six-chambered heart or an abdominal booster-heart to improve endurance.

    --
    Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
    1. Re:Interesting engineering opportunities by Fred_A · · Score: 4, Funny

      Nearly every sport has a doping and non-doping league already. The problem is, people will only pay to see the non-doping leagues at the moment. Which means all the money is in the non-doping league. Which means all the dopers try to cheat and compete in the non-doping league. This problem seems unlikely to ever go away. It seemed to me it was the other way around. But then I don't really follow the sports.
      --

      May contain traces of nut.
      Made from the freshest electrons.
    2. Re:Interesting engineering opportunities by bwalling · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This is how we're going to evolve, from here on out.
      I seriously hope that I die before that comes to pass. Given the greed in this world, modding humans will only lead to a greater disparity between "have" and "have not." I'd like to hope for better, but it seems like that would just be foolish.
    3. Re:Interesting engineering opportunities by Rich0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I dunno - you're thinking about haves and have-nots in terms of cash. But I'm thinking in terms of genetics. Why should some girls be "prettier" than others, and some guys able to run faster, think smarter, play piano better, or be born without what we'd consider "mental defects"? This way in theory anybody could participate in the Tour de France, or marry an old rich guy.

      In any case, I think its inevitable - so there is not much point in arguing about it. Everybody uses their strengths to make up for their weaknesses. The fact that humans are much better in brains than just about anything else just means that the brains will figure out a way to make up for the rest.

      What's the difference between having a few extra heart chambers vs wearing eyeglasses or a hearing aid?

  4. choices, choices... by smokejive · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now the big question is, do I go for the replacement legs that give me more speed and let me jump higher, or do I become more stealthy. Choices, choices...

  5. Install several in parallel by MonkeyBoyo · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you can grow replacement hears, then you can grow more than one.

    Think of the gains of installing 2 in parallel, or even 4.

    Though it would probably be nice to get their beating synchronized.

    1. Re:Install several in parallel by qw0ntum · · Score: 5, Funny

      Imagine a Beowulf cluster of those things! ...sorry.

      --
      'Every story, if continued long enough, ends in death.' --Ernest Hemingway
  6. Cool, but... by owlnation · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...it's pronounced "Fronkensteen".

  7. Not quite creating. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    If I'm reading this right, they didn't so much create a new heart as bring a dead one back to life.

    Which is possibly even cooler, and I'm sure you can find 50k hearts a year in the US that wouldn't normally be donatable because of time constraints. (A heart is (normally!) only good for 4 hours after death or removal iirc). And even beyond saved lives, we can hopefully get a better quality of life too, since there should be less time waiting for a transplant with a half dead body.

    Hmm, do modern artificial hearts last 8 days reliably? And would a diseased heart be practical?

    What about organ rejection issues, will those be causes by the dead heart, the stem cells, both?