Scientists Turn Skin Cells Into Beating Heart Muscle

An anonymous reader writes "By taking skin cells and turning them into stem cells, a technique that is already well known, researchers at Technion Israel Institute of Technology were able to generate beating heart cells — a medical first. 'We have shown that it's possible to take skin cells from an elderly patient with advanced heart failure and end up with his own beating cells in a laboratory dish that are healthy and young — the equivalent to the stage of his heart cells when he was just born,' Lior Gepstein, study author and professor of medicine said."

Comments

Re:A question for the bio geeks..

[Kurofuneparry]

Biochemist medical student here. Propagating genetic errors is certainly a concern here, but the same concerns exist for genetic transfer in breeding generally. While skin cell are exposed to more radiation, the cells preferred for sampling here are typically from buccal (mouth) sources or are relatively deeper than the layers where most melanoma form.
Honestly, the more prime concerns are with imperfect "stemming" or imperfect conversion to heart cells.
Then again ... I'm and idiot ....

Re:A question for the bio geeks..

[ColdWetDog]

At any rate, this is early on in the program. Nobody is making new hearts just yet. Cancer certainly is an issue but only one of many potential problems.

The abstract in case anybody cares. The real article is behind the usual paywall. Grrr.