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from the No,-I'm-storing-up-potential-iPSCs dept.
According to an article in the journal Advanced Science, researchers at Tel Aviv University were able to create a small 3D-printed heart that included blood vessels out of human tissue.
Until now, researchers have only been able to print simple tissues lacking blood vessels, so a 3D, fully vascularized engineered heart is a step in the right direction.
The process consists of taking a sample of abdominal fat tissue, reprogramming the cells to become induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), differentiating these into cardiac muscle cells and blood vessel cells, and combining them with hydrogels to form structures for the cells to proliferate on.
Heart disease causes one in four deaths in the US (about 610,000 people a year), and there's a shortage of heart donors for transplants, so 3D-printed hearts could help solve a major issue
As a next step, the team plans to culture, print, and transplant similar hearts into animals. Significant challenges still remain, such as the efficient cultivation of the stem cells to gain the large quantity needed to engineer full-size organs and improvement of the blood vessel network demonstrated; the team indicates we are many, many years from from doing this for humans.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday April 17 2019, @01:08AM (3 children)
All the medical breakthroughs, just in time to keep Baby Boomers alive for another 25 years! You millenials should be grateful!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 17 2019, @01:11AM (1 child)
And can clone MDC so the one who passed on was simply a duplicate and the real one travelled to the future to write more soylent posts when you are all crotchety Methuselahs :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 17 2019, @02:29AM
I thought the rDT was the only one all crotchety.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 17 2019, @01:12AM
I am grateful. The mid-life crises of today's 40-60 year olds are of direct benefit to younger people. I hope they continue to push the envelope.