Healing Heart

In an experiment that demonstrates reality is stranger than fiction, Israeli researchers placed an engineered scaffolding, containing myocytes, in rats’ omentums, where blood rich tissue prompted the heart cells to acquire capillaries.  Then, they transplanted those patches to the rats’ hearts that had suffered infarction and observed dramatic improvement in function.  While human trials are not yet forthcoming, this work does show strong prospects for tissue regeneration once the vasculature problem is resolved.  MORE  

Image Credit: Tal Dvir and Technology Review