New strategy for mending broken hearts? - Duke University

By mimicking the way embryonic stem cells develop into heart muscle in a lab, Duke University bioengineers believe they have taken an important first step toward growing a living 'heart patch' to repair heart tissue damaged by disease. In a series of experiments using mouse embryonic stem cells, the bioengineers used a novel mold of their own design to fashion a three-dimensional 'patch' made up of heart muscle cells, known as cardiomyocytes. The new tissue exhibited the two most important attributes of heart muscle cells - the ability to contract and to conduct electrical impulses. The mold looks much like a piece of Chex cereal in which researchers varied the shape and length of the pores to control the direction and orientation of the growing cells. The research was supported by National Institutes of Health, the National Heart Lung Blood Institute and Duke's Stem Cell Innovation program. Other Duke members of the research team were Weining Bian and Nicolas Christoforou