Scientists grow heart tissue on spinach leaves.
Mar 28, 2017 21:54:46 GMT -5
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Post by Kevin Hamilton on Mar 28, 2017 21:54:46 GMT -5
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170322152753.htm
Researchers face a fundamental challenge as they seek to scale up human tissue regeneration from small lab samples to full-size tissues and organs: how to establish a vascular system that delivers blood deep into the developing tissue. Researchers have now successfully turned to plants, culturing beating human heart cells on spinach leaves that were stripped of plant cells. In a series of experiments, the team cultured beating human heart cells on spinach leaves that were stripped of plant cells. They flowed fluids and microbeads similar in size to human blood cells through the spinach vasculature, and they seeded the spinach veins with human cells that line blood vessels. These proof-of-concept studies open the door to using multiple spinach leaves to grow layers of healthy heart muscle to treat heart attack patients.
Other decellularized plants could provide the framework for a wide range of tissue engineering technologies. "We have a lot more work to do, but so far this is very promising," said Glenn Gaudette, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering at WPI and corresponding author of the paper. "Adapting abundant plants that farmers have been cultivating for thousands of years for use in tissue engineering could solve a host of problems limiting the field."
Other decellularized plants could provide the framework for a wide range of tissue engineering technologies. "We have a lot more work to do, but so far this is very promising," said Glenn Gaudette, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering at WPI and corresponding author of the paper. "Adapting abundant plants that farmers have been cultivating for thousands of years for use in tissue engineering could solve a host of problems limiting the field."
