Living “mini hearts” — structures that resemble tiny, primitive, beating hearts — can be created from human stem cells.
These miniature heart like structures could help scientists test heart drugs for safety, and learn more about how the heart develops in order to help prevent defects.
Dr. Bruce Conklin, a stem cell biologist at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in San Francisco, along with colleagues developed these tiny hearts using stem cells derived from skin tissue. The scientists allowed the cells to grow in a petri dish, adding a chemical layer containing slight physical and chemical differences, thanks to tiny etchings made with oxygen plasma.
Normally, when stem cells are grown in holes the size of a quarter or larger, they grow into sheets of tissue. However, the researchers found that when stem cells are grown in tiny pits, the mechanical cues they received from confinement in such tight spaces helped them organize into hollow chambers. Cells along the edges of the pits experienced greater mechanical stress and tension, and developed to look more like fibroblasts, which are the cells that produce the collagen seen in connective tissue. In contrast, the cells in the center developed into heart muscle cells.
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