Researchers Unveil Artificial Biologic Heart

Cardiac disease researchers have created a functioning artificial biologic heart, demonstrating technology that might someday allow victims of organ failure to "grow” new ones from their own cells.

Investigators from the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, USA) worked with hearts removed from dead animals. The hearts were treated with detergents to remove all cellular material without damaging the underlying extracellular matrix structure. Then, the biologic framework was seeded with a mixture of cardiac and endothelial precursor cells, and the construct was maintained in sterile nutrient medium.

They reported in the January 13, 2008, issue of the journal Nature Medicine that macroscopic contractions began four days after seeding. By the eighth day, under physiologic load and electrical stimulation, the artificial hearts could generate pump function (equivalent to about 2% of adult or 25% of 16-week fetal heart function) in a modified working heart preparation.

"Take a section of this new heart and slice it, and cells are back in there,” said senior author Dr. Doris Taylor, professor of medicine and physiology at the University of Minnesota. "The cells have many of the markers we associate with the heart and seem to know how to behave like heart tissue. The idea would be to develop transplantable blood vessels or whole organs that are made from your own cells. It opens a door to this notion that you can make any organ: kidney, liver, lung, pancreas--you name it and we hope we can make it.”


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