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Master cells could repair broken hearts

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-03 08:50

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.

But Chien said his team is now looking for intermediate cells that are on their way to becoming beating heart muscle, the cells that line the arteries, and other heart cell types.

More immediately, it helps in understanding what causes heart disease, Chien said.

Early heart system cells

In mice, the progenitor cells that Chien's team found exist for just 48 hours. But a mouse develops from conception to birth in just three weeks, while humans gestate for nine months.

Chien does not believe it would be possible to grow entire hearts using the cells - too complicated - but it may be possible to grow patches to fix areas damaged by heart attacks, or faulty valves, he said.

Batches of cells could also be used to test drugs for possible unexpected side-effects on the heart.

"Finding a cell that can make all the parts of the heart, including the contracting muscle, the smooth muscle and the vessels, brings us much closer to the possibility of repairing human hearts with new cells," Dr Doug Melton, who helps direct the stem cell institute, said in a statement.

Banks of human heart progenitor cells might be grown and used for treatments eventually, Chien said, especially if they can be matched to all the different human tissue and blood types.

Reuters