Scientists Turn Skin Cells Into Beating Heart Muscle

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Scientists Turn Skin Cells Into Beating Heart Muscle

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday May 23, 2012 @12:04PM from the grow-your-own-organs dept.

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."

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A question for the bio geeks.. by wbr1 · 2012-05-23 12:19 · Score: 4, Interesting

By taking skin cells and turning them into stem cells as the precursor to other cell lines that match the patients genetic makeup. are you increasing the chances of cancer?
In my certainly uninformed view, skin cells are exposed to more radiation, thus more likely to have replication errors in their DNA, then adding the stress of modifying the cell to another form, I wonder what that does to it from a replication standpoint. It is nice to have fresh heat muscle I am sure, but to suddenly find yourself with melanoma in the heart would be a bummer.

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1. Re:A question for the bio geeks.. by dgatwood · 2012-05-23 12:24 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Unless you wear string bikinis, most folks have plenty of skin that never sees the sun. That said, I would expect a cheek swab (the mouth variety) to be a more common way to get those cells.
  
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2. Re:A question for the bio geeks.. by cvtan · 2012-05-23 12:29 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  That means you could literally make a politician out of a horses ass!
  
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3. Re:A question for the bio geeks.. by Kurofuneparry · 2012-05-23 12:34 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  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 ....
  
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4. Re:A question for the bio geeks.. by geekoid · 2012-05-23 12:38 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  No.
  If it were true, so what? You need a heart replacement or you will die, soon. If the procedure might give you cancer in 20 years, isn't that still a good trade?
  
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5. Re:A question for the bio geeks.. by RabidReindeer · 2012-05-23 12:41 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  That means you could literally make a politician out of a horses ass!
  That's just a circular exercise. You end up with the same thing you started with.
6. Re:A question for the bio geeks.. by ColdWetDog · 2012-05-23 12:56 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  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.
  
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7. Re:A question for the bio geeks.. by Biotech_is_Godzilla · 2012-05-23 22:09 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I'd agree about the imperfect stemming/heart cell conversion thing, but not with this:
  
  Propagating genetic errors is certainly a concern here, but the same concerns exist for genetic transfer in breeding generally.
  They're not exactly the same concerns. 'Normal' somatic cells, cells of the body which aren't stem cells, have a much higher capacity for surviving with DNA damage in their genomes than stem cells. This is because they have stopped growing & proliferating and hence stopped replicating their DNA, and a major method by which DNA damage is detected in the cell is by "testing whether DNA replication can occur". When DNA replication fails or is particularly difficult there's a good chance a proliferating cell (i.e. stem cells) will activate DNA damage checkpoints and die or senesce (stop growing permanently).
  The methods used to make "stemmed" cells (induced pluripotent stem cells) usually involve introducing some oncogenes which ultimately mess up activation of the DNA damage checkpoints. Also, the genes that are introduced during the process of "stemming" are randomly scattered into the genome, potentially inserting into and knocking out the cell's tumour suppressor genes, so cells which may already be in a DNA-damaged state can be further damaged while being deliberately converted to a highly proliferating state. The process selects for cells which can proliferate even when damaged, which is not ideal as far as preventing cancer is concerned. New methods, using drugs and not the introduction of oncogenes, have been produced, but I don't think they're commonly used yet (correct me if I'm wrong, someone).
  I don't pretend to understand what's unique about how DNA damage is dealt with during sex to prevent mutations being propagated to the next generation. I'm not sure that much work has been done on it, but germline sperm and egg-producing cells are stem cells, so damage isn't likely to be that well tolerated in them, and if sperm is very damaged it's likely to be inviable and won't lead to conception. I had to go off and research this to have something to say about it, during which I found the following tidbit: having sex/ spanking off once a day gets rid of damaged sperm and seems to be a way of maintaining a bloke's fertility in tip-top condition. So blokes are probably biologically programmed to masturbate, in case you needed an excuse!
8. Re:A question for the bio geeks.. by ThatsNotPudding · 2012-05-23 23:51 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Unless you wear string bikinis, most folks have plenty of skin that never sees the sun.
  Taint: is there nothing it can't do?
9. Re:A question for the bio geeks.. by Kurofuneparry · 2012-05-24 01:18 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  While you are correct about many of the concerns from the stemming process, I was mainly talking about somatic mutations (like those caused by gamma radiation for example). The statement I made previously about these somatic mutations propagating no more in stemming than in breeding is still true. Also, the proto-oncogene concern is one that current research is already working toward limiting.
  My main concern with your statement is the argument that stem cells are MORE susceptible to random mutation than somatic cells. This is simply false. You argued that decreased activity is a protective attribute than for stem cells. In fact, most stem cells in the human body are LESS active than somatic cells as somatic cells do the work and (monopotent) stem cells like osteoprogenitor cells are mainly there to replenish and preserve genetic information. It's a biological axiom that sex cells (sperm and ova) have the highest importance in preserving genetic integrity and that's what we see experimentally: the sex cells have BETTER preservation of information, not worse.
  .... Then again ..... I'm an idiot ....
  
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  ...... and idiots rule the world....
immortality by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-23 12:22 · Score: 3, Interesting

every advancement in medicine, and health is another step towards immortality.
Only problem is, you can replace everything in the body except the brain.
generations from now people will be living over 200 years of age, I can see new problems arising.
Over population is a problem and the average lifespan is under 70.
I see a future of hybrid human technology species
1. Re:immortality by Anonymous Coward · 2012-05-23 12:35 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Over population is a problem ...
  Overpopulation is not a problem. That is a myth that has been perpetuated since the latter half of the 18th century. Do the math.
  
  Only problem is, you can replace everything in the body except the brain.
  Perhaps even the brain... someday. There's nothing inherently mystical or supernatural about the brain that must make it impossible to transfer knowledge and identity from one to the other. We just don't know how... yet.
  
  I see a future of hybrid human technology species
  Without a doubt. I anticipate that it will start becoming a regular occurrence for people to augment their physical and even mental abilities with machines well before the end of this century.
Re:More of this, please by WillDraven · 2012-05-23 12:42 · Score: 4, Interesting

Personally, I'm hoping that we get back on track with space travel, and then I can upload myself into an interstellar space probe. If nano-tech gets good enough, you could maybe even reconstitute a physical body if you find someplace interesting to land. With an electronic mind, you could alter your perception of time so the boring parts of floating between stars for years would only last a few minutes subjectively.

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Re:More of this, please by Spiked_Three · 2012-05-23 12:52 · Score: 4, Funny

My head is ugly. I want all new please.

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Re:Where's George Bush? by Spiked_Three · 2012-05-23 12:53 · Score: 4, Funny

they cloned him as Mitt Romney and he is on the way, patience.

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Re:More of this, please by Adriax · 2012-05-23 13:36 · Score: 4, Funny

The toggle for the host computer's perception speed had better resemble a 386SX-16 turbo button or I wouldn't even bother.

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Re:WHAT WHITE PEOPLE ARE HIDING! by slashchuck · 2012-05-23 13:50 · Score: 3, Funny

Slashdot should reduce the font size of the Troll/Flamebait postings. It will cut down on the disk space used.

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Re:More of this, please by Lynchenstein · 2012-05-23 16:55 · Score: 3, Funny

If they could clone and replace "certain" organs with, oh, say, perhaps, LARGER versions, they could pay for all future research with the proceeds of this technique.

Of course *I* don't need this, but I'm sure *others* might...
Re:More of this, please by joocemann · 2012-05-23 19:58 · Score: 3, Informative

This work hs been going on in an adacent lab for a while now.... very promising to hear results like that.
http://m.circres.ahajournals.org/content/107/9/1042.full
Re:More of this, please by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2012-05-23 21:11 · Score: 3, Funny

The toggle for the host computer's perception speed had better resemble a 386SX-16 turbo button or I wouldn't even bother.
Yes, but if you're already inside the computer, how do you press the button?

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Re:So it only goes to follow... by tomhuxley · 2012-05-24 00:34 · Score: 3, Funny

Finally a real use for Segways!