Cum sa cresti inimi noi

The rat hearts beat just as if there were inside a live animal, but even more remarkable is how each one has been made: by coating the stripped-down "scaffolding" of one rat's heart with tissue grown from another rat's stem cells.

Taylor, a stem cell scientist at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, now wants to repeat the achievement on a much larger scale, by "decellularising" hearts, livers and other organs taken either from human cadavers or from larger animals such as pigs, and coating them in stem cells harvested from people.

Ideea este sa fie recoltata o inima, de la un porc crescut special pentru asta, care apoi este decelularizata astfel incat sa ramana doar o "schela" formata din colagen si proteine (lipsita de ADN si celule). Pe schela se pun celule stem prelevate de la pacient. Acestea cresc si populeaza structura formand noi tesuturi care nu vor fi respinse.
Problema se pare ca este musculatura care nu poate fi crescuta eficient. Rezultatul este o inima noua, echivalentul unei inimi atrofiate, incapabila sa pompeze cat este nevoie.

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