Dr. Gabriele DUva is finishing up his postdoctoral research at the Weizmann Institute. Here is his account of three years of highly successful research on regenerating heart cells after injury. Among other things, it is the story of the way that different ideas from vastly different research areas can, over the dinner table or in casual conversation, provide the inspiration for outstanding research:

Three years ago, when I joined the lab of Prof. Eldad Tzahor, the emerging field of cardiac regeneration was totally obscure to me. My scientific track at that time was mainly focused on normal and cancer stem cells: cells that build our bodies during development and adulthood. The deregulation of these cells can lead to cancer. I have to admit that I didnt know even the shape of a cardiac cell when my postdoc journey started

Eldads lab was also switching fields well, not drastically, like me, but still it was a transition from a basic research on the development of the heart to the challenge of heart regeneration during adult life.

Two neonatal cardiomyocytes (staining in red) undergoing cell division after treatment with NRG1

In contrast to most tissues in our body, which renew themselves throughout life using our pools of stem cells, the renewal of heart cells in adulthood is extremely low; it almost doesnt exist. Just to give an approximate picture of renewal and regeneration processes: Every day we produce billions of new blood cells that completely replace the old ones in a few months. In contrast, heart cells renewal is so low that, many cardiac cells remain with us for our entire life, from birth to death! Consequently, heart injuries cannot be truly repaired, leading to (often lethal) cardiovascular diseases. This might appear somewhat nonsensical, since the heart is our most vital organ: No (heart) beat no life.

Hence a challenge for many scientists is to understand how to induce heart regeneration Scientists have been trying different strategies, for example, the injection of stem cells. We decided to adopt a different strategy one that mimics the natural regenerative process of healing the heart in such regenerative organisms as amphibians and fish, and even newly-born mice. In all these cases the regeneration of the heart involves the proliferation of heart muscle cells called cardiomyocytes. Therefore the challenge before us was: How can we push cardiomyocytes to divide?

We adopted a team strategy. Cancer turned out to be a somewhat useful model for a strategy. After all, the hallmark of this disease is continuous self-renewal and cell proliferation. Starting from this thought, Prof. Yossi Yarden, a leading expert in the cancer field, suggested: Why dont you try an oncogene, such as ERBB2, whose deregulation can lead to uncontrolled cellular growth and tumour development? The idea was that cardiomyocytes could be pushed into a proliferative state by this cancer-promoting agent. To Eldad, this was a nice life circle closing, since Eldad, when he was a PhD student in Yossis lab, focused exactly on the ERBB2 mechanism of action in cancer progression. I must admit, the idea sounded very intriguing and I really liked it.

Eldad, as a developmental biologist, had a different approach. Based on his field of expertise, his tactic was to apply proliferative (and regenerative) strategies learned from the embryos, when heart cells normally proliferate to form a functional organ. It turned out that a key player in driving embryonic heart growth is again ERBB2!

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Guest post: Dr. Gabriele DUva: How to Grow New Heart Cells [The Weizmann Wave]

Welcome

The Stem Cell Center Texas Heart Institute is dedicated to the study of adult stem cells and their role in treating diseases of the heart and the circulatory system. Through numerous clinical and preclinical studies, we have come to realize the potential of stem cells to help patients suffering from cardiovascular disease.We are actively enrolling patients in studies using stem cells for the treatment of heart failure, heart attacks, and peripheral vascular disease.

Whether you are a patient looking for information regarding our research, or a doctor hoping to learn more about stem cell therapy, we welcome you to the Stem Cell Center. Please visit our Clinical Trials page for more information about our current trials.

Emerson C. Perin, MD, PhD, FACC Director, Clinical Research for Cardiovascular Medicine Medical Director, Stem Cell Center McNair Scholar

You may contact us at:

E-mail: stemcell@texasheart.org Toll free: 1-866-924-STEM (7836) Phone: 832-355-9405 Fax: 832-355-9440

We are a network of physicians, scientists, and support staff dedicatedto studying stem cell therapy for treating heart disease. Thegoals of the Network are to complete research studies that will potentially lead to more effective treatments for patients with cardiovasculardisease, and to share knowledge quickly with the healthcare community.

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The Stem Cell Center at Texas Heart Institute

For millions of people around the world, who suffer from various diseases, research in stem cells offers a ray of hope. Scientists of the city-based Indian Institute of Science have used stem cells of a mouse to culture cardiac cells.

Explaining the research, Polani B. Seshagiri said their research over the past seven years has helped develop cardiac cells that function and beat in rhythms identical to the original cell.

Speaking on Stem Cell Awareness Day recently, Prof. Seshagiri said stem cells had several advantages and could cure human disorders and diseases, which could not be cured by conventional approaches. However, he warned that there was a need to be aware of the limitations of stem cells.

Sudarshan Ballal, Medical Director, Manipal Health Enterprise, said stem cells had enormous potential as they never die and could be converted into any cell. Stem cells can be converted into organs and maybe years later, organs can be cultivated in labs through stem cell, he said. Elaborating further, he said a stem cell could be compared to a bicycle, which could turn into car, motorbike and spaceship based on the environment and conditions.

Nazeer Ahmed, Deputy Drug Controller of Karnataka, said they were in the process of chalking out regulations for stem cells as there were currently no rules to regulate stem cell research and therapy.

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Scientists develop cardiac cells using stem cells

for the first time, scientists - including an Indian American bioengineer - have developed a network of pulsating cardiac muscle cells housed in an inch-long silicone device that effectively models human heart tissue.

This organ-on-a-chip represents a major step forward in the development of accurate, faster methods of testing for drug toxicity.

"Ultimately, these chips could replace the use of animals to screen drugs for safety and efficacy," said professor Kevin Healy of University of California, Berkeley, who led the team.

"This system is not a simple cell culture where tissue is being bathed in a static bath of liquid," said study lead author Anurag Mathur, a postdoctoral scholar in Healy's lab.

"We designed this system so that it is dynamic. It replicates how tissue in our bodies actually gets exposed to nutrients and drugs," Mathur explained.

The study authors noted a high failure rate associated with the use of nonhuman animal models to predict human reactions to new drugs.

Much of the failure is due to fundamental differences in biology between species, the researchers explained.

"Using a well-designed model of a human organ could significantly cut the cost and time of bringing a new drug to market," Healy added.

The heart cells were derived from human-induced pluripotent stem cells, the adult stem cells that can be coaxed to become many different types of tissue.

The researchers designed their cardiac microphysiological system, or heart-on-a-chip, so that its 3D structure would be comparable to the geometry and spacing of connective tissue fibre in a human heart.

Read the original here:
Human 'heart on a chip' to aid drug tests

CIRM funds many projects seeking to better understand heart disease and to translate those discoveries into new therapies.

If you want to learn more about CIRM funding decisions or make a comment directly to our board, join us at a public meeting. You can find agendas for upcoming public meetings on our meetings page.

Find Out More: Stem Cell FAQ | Stem Cell Videos | What We Fund

Find clinical trials: CIRM does not track stem cell clinical trials. If you or a family member is interested in participating in a clinical trial, please visit clinicaltrials.gov to find a trial near you.

Heart disease strikes in many forms, but collectively it causes one third of all deaths in the U.S. Many forms of heart disease have a common resultcardiomyopathy. While this is commonly called congestive heart failure (CHF), it is really just the heart becoming less efficient due to any number of causes, but the most common is loss of functioning heart muscle due to the damage caused by a heart attack. An estimated 4.8 million Americans have CHF, with 400,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Half die within five years.

Numerous clinical trials are underway testing a type of stem cell found in borne marrow, called mesenchymal stem cells or MSCs, to see if they are effective in treating the form of CHF that follows a heart attack. While those trials have shown some small improvements in patients the researchers have not found that the MSCs are creating replacement heart muscle. They think the improvements may be due to the MSCs creating new blood vessels that then help make the existing heart muscle healthier, or in other ways strengthening the existing tissue.

Californias stem cell agency has numerous awards looking into heart disease (the full list is below). Most of these involve looking for ways to create stem cells that can replace the damaged heart muscle, restoring the hearts ability to efficiently pump blood around the body. Some researchers are looking to go beyond transplanting cells into the heart and are instead exploring the use of tissue engineering technologies, such as building artificial scaffolds in the lab and loading them with stem cells that, when placed in the heart, may stimulate the recovery of the muscle.

Other CIRM-funded researchers are working in the laboratory, looking at stem cells from heart disease patients to better understand the disease and even using those models to discover and test new drugs to see if they are effective in treating heart disease. Other researchers are trying to make a type of specialized heart cell called a pacemaker cell, which helps keep a proper rhythm to the hearts beat.

We also fund projects that are trying to take promising therapies out of the laboratory and closer to being tested in people. These Disease Team Awards encourage the creation of teams that have both the scientific knowledge and business skills needed to produce therapies that can get approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be tested in people. In some cases, these awards also fund the early phase clinical trials to show that they are safe to use and, in some cases, show some signs of being effective.

This team developed a way to isolate some heart-specific stem cells that are found in adult heart muscle. They use clumps of cells called Cardiospheres to reduce scarring caused by heart attacks. Initially they used cells obtained from the patients own heart but they later developed methods to obtain the cells they need from donor organs, which allows the procedure to become an off-the-shelf-therapy, meaning it can be available when and where the patient needs it rather than having to create it new each time. The company, working with the Cedars-Sinai team, received FDA approval to begin a clinical trial in June 2012.

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Heart Disease Fact Sheet | California's Stem Cell Agency

CardioCel has been initially well received with surgeons in Australia and overseas. Photo: Geoff Fisher

For 10 years researchers at Admedus worked day and night trying to work out how to improve soft tissue repair in the human body.

And with the vital help of CSIRO they have been to develop CardioCel, a life-saving heart patch for the repair and reconstruction of cardiovascular defects.

According to the Children's Heart Foundation, congenital heart disease occurs in one out of 100 births and in at least half of those cases surgery is required and a patch is needed. They state it is the leading cause of birth defect related deaths.

Research undertaken with CSIRO investigated new, potentially ground-breaking applications for CardioCel. The research focused on using stem cells. It found the heart patch has the potential to deliver stem cells and help tissue heal better than other existing products, when used for cardiac repair.

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Derived from animal tissue, the CardioCel patch is engineered over 14 days.

"The first unique feature of this product is that it doesn't calcify in young patients," Professor Leon Neethling, Admedus technical director and heart researcher says.

The flexible patch works like human tissue to cover holes in the heart thereby eliminating the need for repeat surgery.

"In the cardiac repair field it has long been recognised that strong, flexible, biocompatible and calcification-resistant tissue scaffolds would be ideal tissues for repair of heart defects," Admedus' chief operating officer Dr Julian Chick, says.

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Local innovation repairs holes in the heart

Newport Beach, California (PRWEB) March 31, 2015

Newport Beach based charity Coalition Duchenne has launched an interview series titled Making a Difference in Duchenne on its Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/CoalitionDuchenne) focused on individuals making a difference in Duchenne muscular dystrophy research, care, awareness, and education.

The first interview features Dr. Eduardo Marbn MD, PhD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, talking about cardiac derived stem cells. Dr. Marbn was featured in a November 2011 Economist article Repairing Broken Hearts, read by Coalition Duchenne founder and executive director Catherine Jayasuriya. She lobbied for a focus on Duchenne because cardiac scarring severely compromises the life span of those with the disease. Coalition Duchenne funded successful research applying Marbns stem cell technology to Duchenne. The approach has been clinically proven to mitigate scarring cause by heart attacks. In Marbns therapy, human heart tissue is used to grow specialized heart stem cells, which are injected back into the patients heart.

We need to focus on changing the course of the disease. We lose many young men to cardiac issues. We hope that working with cardiac stem cells is one way we will eventually change that outcome, said Jayasuriya.

The second interview in the Making a Difference in Duchenne series features actor Cody Saintgnue, who plays Brett Talbot in MTVs Teen Wolf. Saintgnue has a unique relationship with Duchenne. He played a young man with muscular dystrophy in his break out role on House MD in 2009. Saintgnue talks about his experience learning to mimic the physicality of a young man with Duchenne, as well as the inspiration he draws from the way those young men overcome many obstacles to live happy, fulfilling lives.

Upcoming interviews will feature: Professor Rachelle Crosbie-Watson from the University of California, Los Angeles, who teaches the first university course focused entirely on Duchenne; Dr. Ron Victor, a Cedars-Sinai cardiologist and researcher looking at the benefits of Cialis and Viagra for Duchenne cardiomyopathy; and, Scotty Bob Morgan, a daredevil wingsuit pilot, who has raised awareness worldwide about Duchenne, flying a specially made Coalition Duchenne wingsuit.

About Duchenne muscular dystrophy: Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a progressive muscle wasting disease. It is the most common fatal disease that affects children. Duchenne occurs in 1 in 3,500 male births, across all races, cultures and countries. Duchenne is caused by a defect in the gene that codes for the protein dystrophin. This is a vital protein that helps connect the muscle fiber to the cell membranes. Without dystrophin, the muscle cells become unstable, are weakened and lose their functionality. Life expectancy ranges from the mid teenage years to the mid 20s. Their minds are unaffected.

About Coalition Duchenne: Jayasuriya founded Coalition Duchenne in 2010 (http://www.coalitionduchenne.org) to raise global awareness for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, to fund research and to find a cure for Duchenne. Coalition Duchenne is a 501c3 non-profit corporation.

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Coalition Duchenne Launches Youtube Interview Series 'Making a Difference in Duchenne'

The growing number of biological structures being grown on chips in various laboratories around the world is rapidly replicating the entire gamut of major human organs. Now one of the most important of all a viable functioning heart has been added to that list by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley) who have taken adult stem cells and grown a lattice of pulsing human heart tissue on a silicon device.

Sourced from human-induced pluripotent stem cells able to be persuaded into forming many different types of tissue, the human heart device cells are not simply separate groups of cells existing in a petri dish, but a connected series of living cells molded into a structure that is able to beat and react just like the real thing.

"This system is not a simple cell culture where tissue is being bathed in a static bath of liquid," said study lead author Anurag Mathur, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley. "We designed this system so that it is dynamic; it replicates how tissue in our bodies actually gets exposed to nutrients and drugs."

Touted as a possible replacement for living animal hearts in drug-safety screening, the ability to easily access and rapidly analyze a heart equivalent in experiments presents appealing advantages.

"Ultimately, these chips could replace the use of animals to screen drugs for safety and efficacy," said professor of bioengineering at UC Berkeley, and leader of the research team, Kevin Healy.

The cardiac microphysiological system, as the team calls its heart-on-a-chip, has been designed so that its silicon support structure is equivalent to the arrangement and positioning of conjoining tissue filaments in a human heart. To this supporting arrangement, the researchers loaded the engineered human heart cells into the priming tube, whose cone-shaped funnel assisted in aligning the cells in a number of layers and in one direction.

In this setup, the team created microfluidic channels on each side of the cell holding region to replicate blood vessels to imitate the interchange of nutrients and drugs by diffusion in human tissue. The researchers believe that this arrangement may also one day provide the ability to view and gauge the expulsion of metabolic waste from the cells in future experiments.

"Many cardiovascular drugs target those channels, so these differences often result in inefficient and costly experiments that do not provide accurate answers about the toxicity of a drug in humans," said Professor Healy. "It takes about US$5 billion on average to develop a drug, and 60 percent of that figure comes from upfront costs in the research and development phase. Using a well-designed model of a human organ could significantly cut the cost and time of bringing a new drug to market."

The use of animal organs to forecast human reactions to new drugs is problematic, the UC Berkeley researchers note, citing the fundamental differences between species as being responsible for high failure rates in using these models. One aspect responsible for this failure is to be found in the difference in the ion channel structure between human and other animals where heart cells conduct electrical currents at different rates and intensities. It is the standardized nature of using actual human heart cells that the team sees as the heart-on-a-chip's distinct advantage over animal models.

The UC Berkeley device is certainly not the first replication of an organ-on-a-chip, but potentially one of the first successful ones to integrate living cells and artificial structures in a single functioning unit. Harvard's spleen-on-a-chip, for example, replicates the operation of the spleen, but does so by using a set of circulatory tubes containing magnetic nanobeads.

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Heart-on-a-chip beats a steady rhythm

WASHINGTON: Researchers, including one of Indian-origin, have created a 'heart-on-a-chip' loaded with human cardiac muscle cells that mimic the real organ to serve as a novel tool to screen medicines. Researchers developed a network of pulsating cardiac muscle cells housed in an inch-long silicone de-vice that effectively models human heart tissue, and they have demonstrated the viability of this system as a drug-screening tool by testing it with cardiovascular medications.

This organ-on-a-chip represents a major step forward in the development of accurate, faster methods of testing for drug toxicity, researchers said. "Ultimately, these chips could replace the use of animals to screen drugs for safety and efficacy," said professor Kevin Healy from the University of California, Berkeley. The authors noted a high failure rate associated with the use of non-human animal models to predict human reactions to new drugs.

"It takes about 5 billion on average to develop a drug, and 60% of that figure comes from upfront costs in the research and development phase. Using a well-designed model of a human organ could significantly cut the cost and time of bringing a new drug to market," said Healy.

The heart cells were derived from human-induced pluripotent stem cells, the adult stem cells that can be coaxed to become many different types of tissue. Researchers designed their heart-on-a-chip so that its 3D structure would be comparable to the geometry and spacing of connective tissue fibre in a human heart.

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Drug testing on heart-on-a-chip gets a step closer

Cardiac Stem Cells: Making a Difference in Duchenne
Dr Eduardo Marban, Director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, discusses a possible Cardiac Stem Cell breakthrough for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Coalition Duchenne founder, Catherine ...

By: CoalitionDuchenne

Excerpt from:
Cardiac Stem Cells: Making a Difference in Duchenne - Video

No Mortality or Toxicity Noted With CryoStor Deployed as Vehicle Solution for Cells and Placebo in Direct Intramyocardial Injections

BioLife Solutions, Inc., a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of proprietary clinical grade hypothermic storage and cryopreservation freeze media and precision thermal shipping products for cells and tissues (BioLife or the Company), recently announced its CryoStor cell freeze media was utilized in a porcine animal study of umbilical cord blood-derived mononuclear cells (UBC-MNC) to evaluate the safety and feasibility of these cells for cardiac regeneration in pediatric congenital heart disease (CHD).

The safety and feasibility study was performed at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, with the results recently published in an article titled Safety and Feasibility for Pediatric Cardiac Regeneration Using Epicardial Delivery of Autologous Umbilical Cord Blood-Derived Mononuclear Cells Established in a Porcine Model System, which appeared in the peer reviewed clinical journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine.

Umbilical cord blood-derived mononuclear cells were frozen in protein-free, serum-free CryoStor CS10, containing 10% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Thawed cells were administered to piglets via intramyocardial injections, with follow up extended to three months. CryoStor CS10 was also used as the placebo control solution without cells, which was injected into randomized piglets.

The authors observed no mortality or toxicity in any study animals and concluded:

Mike Rice, BioLife President & CEO, stated, The data from this study further support the use of our proprietary biopreservation media products in clinical applications. We are quite pleased to have an institution as renowned as the Mayo Clinic evaluate and use our products in their important clinical research.

BioLife management estimates that the Companys CryoStor cryopreservation freeze media andHypoThermosol storage and shipping media have been incorporated into the manufacturing and clinical delivery protocols of more than 175 cell and tissue-based regenerative medicine clinical trials for new products and therapies.

About BioLife Solutions BioLife Solutions develops, manufactures and markets hypothermic storage and cryopreservation solutions and precision thermal shipping products for cells, tissues, and organs. BioLife also performs contract aseptic media formulation, fill, and finish services. The Companys proprietary HypoThermosol and CryoStor platform of solutions are highly valued in the biobanking, drug discovery, and regenerative medicine markets. BioLifes biopreservation media products are serum-free and protein-free, fully defined, and are formulated to reduce preservation-induced cell damage and death. BioLifes enabling technology provides commercial companies and clinical researchers significant improvement in shelf life and post-preservation viability and function of cells, tissues, and organs. For more information, visit http://www.biolifesolutions.com.

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BioLife Solutions CryoStor Cell Freeze Media Used In Mayo Clinic Safety And Feasibility Study Of Umbilical Cord Blood ...

Lindsey Caldwell

Heart disease is the leading cause of death among Americans. Recently the bio-tech industry has been exploding with cardiac research like last week's heart attack preventing nanobots. New research by the team at the University of California, Berkley has created working human heart cells on a tiny chip designed to test the efficacy of new drugs in clinical trials. This heart-on-a-chip is officially known as a cardiac microphysiological system, or MPS. Using this heart-on-a-chip, scientists can measure the potential cardiac damage of a drug before it reaches expensive human trials.

Drug trials can take years, and to mitigate risk these drugs undergo testing in non-human subjects. Animals are often used in place of humans, but animal models can be problematic. Specifically, they are less effective at predicting cardiotoxicity, wherein a drug damages the heart. This is important because one-third of drugs withdrawn from testing are pulled due to cardiotoxic effects.

Drugs that are first tested in animal models can succeed to future testing stages without setting off alarms. After successful early stages more time and money is invested and the drugs progress to human trials, only to be stopped in their tracks because they are found to be toxic to human hearts.

The cells on this tiny MPS chip are human heart cells that were created from pluripotent stem cells. These cells react to drugs the same way as a human heart inside a living person. By creating a portable, low-risk, and accurate drug testing environment, scientists may be able to advance clinical trials of new drugs and bring them to market sooner.

Here is a video by the UC Berkley research team of their heart cells actually beating.

Source: Berkeley

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Heart-on-a-chip tests drugs cardiotoxicity with its real heartbeat

Researchers have created a "heart on a chip" using actual cardiac muscles to help test the effects of heart medication.

Anurag Mathur/Healy Lab

A new device could help make drug testing safer, faster, cheaper -- and eliminate the need for animal testing. It's just an inch long, but inside its silicone body is housed a small piece of cardiac muscle that responds to cardiovascular medications in exactly the same way heart muscle does inside a living human body.

"Ultimately, these chips could replace the use of animals to screen drugs for safety and efficacy," explained Kevin Healy, UC Berkeley professor of engineering, who led the research team that designed the device.

The problems with using animals to test human heart medication aren't merely ethical -- such concerns about lab animals rarely enter scientific discussions. Rather, there are some serious physiological problems -- namely, that drugs designed for humans will not have the same effect on a species that is biologically different from a human.

"These differences often result in inefficient and costly experiments that do not provide accurate answers about the toxicity of a drug in humans," Healy explained.

"It takes about $5 billion on average to develop a drug, and 60 percent of that figure comes from upfront costs in the research and development phase. Using a well-designed model of a human organ could significantly cut the cost and time of bringing a new drug to market."

The chips were created using heart muscle grown in a lab from adult human induced pluripotent stem cells -- stem cells that can be coaxed to grow into many other types of cell. The team then carefully designed the structure to be similar to the geometry and spacing of connective tissue fibre in a living human heart.

Microfluidic channels carved into the silicone on either side of the cell matrix act the same way as blood vessels, mimicking the exchange of nutrients and drugs with human tissue as it would happen in the body.

The cells start beating on their own within 24 hours of being loaded into the chamber at a healthy resting rate of 55 to 80 beats per minute. In order to test the system, the team then administered four well-known cardiovascular drugs -- isoproterenol, E-4031, verapamil and metoprolol. By monitoring the beat rate, the team was able to observe -- and accurately predict -- the chip's response to the drugs. Isoproterenol, for example -- a drug used to treat slow heart rate -- caused the muscle's beat rate to increase from 55 beats per minute to 124 beats per minute half an hour after being administered.

The rest is here:
Human heart on a chip could replace animal drug testing

Coronary heart disease is the countrys leading cause of death A new treatment was designed to treat damaged heart muscle The capsule contains stem cells derived from the patients bone marrow

By Roger Dobson for the Daily Mail

Published: 17:33 EST, 9 March 2015 | Updated: 18:07 EST, 9 March 2015

A new treatment using a tiny grow-bag has been designed to treat damaged heart muscle

A tiny grow-bag could be a new way to mend hearts damaged by disease or heart attack.

The capsule, which is pea-sized, contains stem cells that trigger the growth of new cells.

An estimated 2.3 million people in Britain have coronary heart disease the countrys leading cause of death.

It occurs when the arteries supplying the heart become blocked by fatty substances, reducing the flow of blood.

If a bit of this fatty substance breaks off, it can trigger a blood clot, which in turn cuts off the blood supply to heart muscle, causing it to die off. This is what triggers a heart attack.

Heart disease and heart attacks can also lead to heart failure, where the heart becomes too weak to pump blood around the body properly.

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The tiny grow-bag that could mend a heart damaged by disease

Though it may not look at all like the muscle in your chest, this heart-on-a-chip can beat like the real thing. A blend of microfluidics and biological cells, the device will be used as a more efficient means of testing for drug toxicity.

Developed by a team of bioengineers form University of California, Berkeley, the device is designed to mimic the geometry of fibers in a human heart. Pluripotent stem cellsthe cells that can be nudged to become one of the many different types of tissue present in our bodiesare introduced to a channel which is specially designed to encourage cells to grow in multiple layers in one direction, like real cardiac tissue. Here, they grow in to heart cells.

This section is then perfused with blood from microfluidic channels which act as blood vessels. Within 24 hours of lining the structure with heart cells, the structure began to beat at rate of between 55 to 80 beats per minutejust like a real human heart. Anurag Mathur, one of the researchers, explains to PhysOrg:

"This system is not a simple cell culture where tissue is being bathed in a static bath of liquid. We designed this system so that it is dynamic; it replicates how tissue in our bodies actually gets exposed to nutrients and drugs."

The system has already been used to test established cardiovascular drugs such as isoproterenol, E-4031, verapamil and metoprolol. The team observed effects upon the heart-on-a-chip consistent with those brought about in real humanso, drugs intended to speed up heart rate did exactly that to the cells in the device. The findings are published in Scientific Reports.

It's hoped that the device will be used to screen drugs, model human genetic diseasesand perhaps even link up with other organs-on-a-chip to predict whole-body reactions too. [Scientific Reports via PhysOrg]

Originally posted here:
This Heart-on-a-Chip Beats Like the Real Thing

When University of California, Berkeley, bioengineers say they are holding their hearts in the palms of their hands, they are not talking about emotional vulnerability.

Instead, the research team led by bioengineering professor Kevin Healy is presenting a network of pulsating cardiac muscle cells housed in an inch-long silicone device that effectively models human heart tissue, and they have demonstrated the viability of this system as a drug-screening tool by testing it with cardiovascular medications.

This organ-on-a-chip, reported in a study to be published Monday, March 9, in the journal Scientific Reports, represents a major step forward in the development of accurate, faster methods of testing for drug toxicity. The project is funded through the Tissue Chip for Drug Screening Initiative, an interagency collaboration launched by the National Institutes of Health to develop 3-D human tissue chips that model the structure and function of human organs.

"Ultimately, these chips could replace the use of animals to screen drugs for safety and efficacy," said Healy.

The study authors noted a high failure rate associated with the use of nonhuman animal models to predict human reactions to new drugs. Much of this is due to fundamental differences in biology between species, the researchers explained. For instance, the ion channels through which heart cells conduct electrical currents can vary in both number and type between humans and other animals.

"Many cardiovascular drugs target those channels, so these differences often result in inefficient and costly experiments that do not provide accurate answers about the toxicity of a drug in humans," said Healy. "It takes about $5 billion on average to develop a drug, and 60 percent of that figure comes from upfront costs in the research and development phase. Using a well-designed model of a human organ could significantly cut the cost and time of bringing a new drug to market."

The heart cells were derived from human-induced pluripotent stem cells, the adult stem cells that can be coaxed to become many different types of tissue.

The researchers designed their cardiac microphysiological system, or heart-on-a-chip, so that its 3-D structure would be comparable to the geometry and spacing of connective tissue fiber in a human heart. They added the differentiated human heart cells into the loading area, a process that Healy likened to passengers boarding a subway train at rush hour. The system's confined geometry helps align the cells in multiple layers and in a single direction.

Microfluidic channels on either side of the cell area serve as models for blood vessels, mimicking the exchange by diffusion of nutrients and drugs with human tissue. In the future, this setup could also allow researchers to monitor the removal of metabolic waste products from the cells.

"This system is not a simple cell culture where tissue is being bathed in a static bath of liquid," said study lead author Anurag Mathur, a postdoctoral scholar in Healy's lab and a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine fellow. "We designed this system so that it is dynamic; it replicates how tissue in our bodies actually gets exposed to nutrients and drugs."

Originally posted here:
Bioengineers put human hearts on a chip to aid drug screening

Durham, NC (PRWEB) February 27, 2015

Several studies showing the promise of stem cells for treating patients with heart failure have made headline news recently. However, all these studies dealt with adult patients only. New research appearing in this months STEM CELLS Translational Medicine shows that stem cells may have the same potential in treating children with congenital heart diseases that can lead to heart failure.

The study, undertaken by researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., looked at the feasibility and long-term safety of injecting autologous umbilical cord blood cells directly into the heart muscle at the pediatric stage of heart development. The study was conducted on pigs, due to their hearts similarity to human hearts.

The team injected the stem cells directly into the right ventricle of groups of three- and four-week old healthy piglets, and then compared the results to a control group that did not receive any cells. Over the next three months, the animals were monitored to assess cardiac performance and rhythm to determine how safe the procedure would be for humans.

During this follow-up period, we found no significant acute or chronic cardiac injury pattern caused by the injections directly into the heart, said lead author Timothy J. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., of the Mayo Clinics Department of Medicine, and all the animals hearts appeared to be normal and healthy.

This led us to conclude that autologous stem cells from cord blood can be safely collected and surgically delivered to children. The study also establishes the foundation for cell-based therapy for children and aims to accelerate the science toward clinical trials for helping children with congenital heart disease that could benefit from a regenerative medicine strategy, he added.

The lead author, Susan Cantero Peral, M.D., Ph.D. commented, This work highlights the importance and utility of umbilical cord blood as it can be applied to new applications. Rather than discarding this sample at birth, individuals with congenital heart disease may one day be able to have these cells collected and processed in a specialized way to make them available for cardiac regeneration.

This work was funded by the Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome founded at the Mayo Clinic.

These data help establish the foundation of a cell-based therapy for juvenile hearts by showing that injections of autologous cells from cord blood are safe and feasible, said Anthony Atala, M.D., editor of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

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See more here:
Study Shows Stem Cells Have Potential to Help Kids Hearts, Too

Albany, NewYork (PRWEB) February 27, 2015

ResearchMoz has announced the addition of a recent study that presents the analysis of the cell culture protein surface coating market across the globe. The research report discusses the current scenario and development prospects of the global cell culture protein surface coating industry for the period of 2015 to 2019.

Read Complete Report With TOC @ http://www.researchmoz.us/global-cell-culture-protein-surface-coating-market-2015-2019-report.html

The research report, titled Global Cell Culture Protein Surface Coating Market, offers an analytical study, providing an in-depth assessment of the industry based on market trends, growth drivers as well as challenges. This is done taking various segments of the market into consideration. The report also forecasts that the worldwide cell culture protein surface coating industry will expand at a CAGR of 12.91% during the forecast period of 2014 to 2019.

Cell culture protein surface coating is defined as the coating process wherein cell culture surfaces are covered with extra-cellular matrix elements or with protein to improve in-vitro linkage and propagation in the cells.

The various kinds of proteins that are available in our surroundings are synthetic proteins, human-derived proteins, plant-derived proteins, and animal-derived proteins. Fibronectin, collagen, laminin, osteopontin, and vitronectin are some of the proteins that are utilized for cell culture protein surface coating. Cell culture protein surface coating assists in the development of several kinds of cells such as epithelial, endothelial, fibroblasts, muscle cells and myoblasts, leukocytes, CHO cell lines, and neurons.

The wide range of applications for cell culture protein surface coatings consist of enhanced adhesion of cells, better propagation and development of cells, cell matrix studies, morphogenesis studies, receptor-ligand binding studies, signal transduction studies, genetic engineering, differentiation of individual cell types, drug screening, and metabolic pathway studies.

Stem cells have high potential for the treatment of severe diseases such as cardiac ailments, neuro degenerative diseases, and even diabetes. This fact has resulted in the increase in demand for highly developed cell culture products for stem cell manufacturing and studies. Cell culture protein surface coating offers enhanced adhesion, propagation, and rapid development of cells during the period of isolation and cultivation.

The main factor that is adding to the growth of the global cell culture protein surface coating industry is increased focus of top market players towards stem cell research. However, the drawbacks of animal-derived protein surface coating is a factor that is soon becoming a matter of concern, hindering the growth of the cell culture protein surface coating market.

Top players of the cell culture protein surface coating industry are EMD Millipore, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Corning, and Sigma-Aldrich.

See the original post:
Global Cell Culture Protein Surface Coating Industry: Rising Focus towards Stem Cells Research to Trigger Market Growth

Posted by Richard Dietman (@rdietman) 3 day(s) ago

Mayo Clinic Radio: Cardiac Regeneration/Stop-Smoking Drug/Juicing

On this weeks Mayo Clinic Radio,fixing a broken heart. Cardiac regeneration uses the bodys own stem cells to repair damage done by heart disease. Mayo Clinic cardiologist Dr. Atta Behfar explains. Also on the program, nicotine dependency expert Dr. Richard Hurt discusses results of a new study about the stop-smoking drug varenicline (Chantix). And Mayo Clinic registered dietitian Katherine Zeratsky explains the risks of juice-only diets.

Myth or Matter-of-Fact: Cardiac regeneration may someday replace the need for surgery to repair heart damage.

To listen to the program at 9 a.m. Saturday, February 21, clickhere.

Follow#MayoClinicRadioand tweet your questions.

Mayo Clinic Radio is available oniHeartRadio.

Mayo Clinic Radiois a weeklyone-hour radio program highlighting health and medical informationfrom Mayo Clinic.

To find and listen toarchived shows,click here.

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Mayo Clinic Radio: Cardiac Regeneration/Stop-Smoking Drug/Juicing

Kansas City, MO (PRWEB) February 09, 2015

One in five Americans will develop heart failure in their lifetime. It is the number one cause of hospitalization for adults over 65. The cost to treat heart failure is $32 billion and expected to double by 2030. There is no doubt heart failure is a significant health problem. The good news is proper care and treatment can dramatically improve a patients outcome and potentially promising new treatments are on the horizon.

February 8-14, 2015 is National Heart Failure Awareness Week. Saint Lukes Mid America Heart Institute, in Kansas City, Missouri specializes in treating heart failure and other complex cardiovascular conditions and has long been one of the leaders in cardiovascular care not only in the Midwest, but across the country.

Heart failure occurs when the heart is unable to efficiently move blood to the rest of the body either due to thickening or weakness. Onset can come from a variety of causes including heart attack, viral illness, abnormal heart valves, genetic traits and even after pregnancy. Symptoms can be subtle; shortness of breath, fatigue, dizziness, swelling in the legs and or stomach.

The good news is a variety of treatments are available and proper care and treatment can dramatically improve symptoms and quality of life for patients.

Treatments include:

The exciting news for patients is we have promising treatments currently in the research phase of development, said Bethany Austin, M.D., Associate Medical Director of the Advanced Heart Failure Program at Saint Lukes Mid America Heart Institute. These treatments range from clinical trials involving catheter based treatments, treatment of sleep apnea, and gene therapy with stem cells for damaged heart muscles. In addition, there is a new medication which has shown in recent trials to provide significant benefit to heart failure patients compared to standard therapy although it is not yet commercially available. All of these offer new hope to heart failure patients.

Saint Lukes offers a multidisciplinary heart team, including the regions only team of cardiologists board certified in Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant, cardiothoracic surgeons, and critical care anesthesiologists.

The Saint Lukes Heart Failure Program also features:

In 2014, The Joint Commission awarded Saint Lukes Hospital Advanced Certification in Heart Failure. Only 53 other hospitals in the United States currently have Advanced Heart Failure Certification. Saint Lukes Hospital also received the Get With The GuidelinesHeart Failure Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Foundation secondary prevention guidelines for heart failure patients.

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Saint Lukes Mid America Heart Institute Offers Tips & Treatments For Heart Failure Awareness Week 2015