Master cells could repair broken hearts

WASHINGTON: Researchers have identified the early master cells that make up the human heart and said on Wednesday they could someday be used to make patches to fix damaged hearts.

The discovery, published in the journal Nature, also sheds surprising light on how human hearts develop in the womb, and how congenital heart disease develops.

"This cell that we describe is probably not going to be used directly as cell-based therapy because it has the possibility of going into too many different cell types," said Kenneth Chien of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital.