Producing a Beating Mouse Heart Through Recellularization

Decellularization is the process of taking a complex organ or other tissue structure and stripping the cells from it, leaving behind the supporting extracellular matrix. The matrix can then be repopulated by new cells of the appropriate types in order to recreate a functional organ. This is in any case is the end goal of this ongoing line of research: decellularization has been used in recent years to produce tracheas and heart valves for transplantation, populating the tissue with the recipient's own cells so as to eliminate the possibility of rejection. A trachea is a comparatively simple structure, however. Just as for tissue engineering of organs from scratch, there are hurdles to be overcome in making decellularization a practical option for organs and tissues that are more functional than structural: lungs, livers, hearts, for example While it is certainly the case that decellarization is lot closer to practical application for heart engineering than building a heart from a patient's own stem cells using bioprinting technologies, or other from-scratch strategies, there is work yet to be done. See this latest research, for example, in which a beating mouse heart is produced, but not one that performs well enough to be a transplant candidate: Decellularized Mouse Heart Beats Again After Regenerating With Human Heart Precursor Cells For the project, the research team first "decellularized," or removed all the cells, from a mouse heart, a process that takes about 10 hou...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs