Growing Heart Cells on Spinach Leaves
May 30, 2017 | Terry Sharrer
“Crossing kingdoms” is the term a group of tissue culture scientists use to describe how they have grown human heart tissue on a vascular scaffold made from decellularized spinach leaves. “In a series of experiments, the team cultured beating human heart cells on spinach leaves that were stripped of plant cells. They flowed fluids and microbeads similar in size to human blood cells through the spinach vasculature, and they seeded the spinach veins with human cells that line blood vessels. These proof-of-concept studies open the door to using multiple spinach leaves to grow layers of healthy heart muscle to treat heart attack patients.” MORE
Image Credit: Worcester Polytechnic University News