Stem Cells Produce Heart Tissue

A collaboration of Canadian and American scientists has produced new knowledge about the development of the three major kinds of heart tissue. By using embryonic stem cells, researchers lead by Dr. Gordon Keller were able to create heart progenitor cells.

In simple terms, a progenitor cell is a special type of cell with the ability and genetic instructions to grow into different types of cells. They're similar to stem cells, however progenitor cells are more specific and form later on in embryonic development. In the case of this experiment, the progenitor cells produced form three very important kinds of heart tissue.

Dr. Keller is the director of the McEwen Center for Regenerative Medicine at the University Health Network in Toronto, Canada. He and his team studied the development of stem cells in lab cultures to identify the formation of heart cell progenitors.

In order for a heart to function and be healthy, it needs three kinds of cells:cardiomyocytes (responsible for making the heart's muscle), endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells, which both aid in the production of blood cells. By identifying where these tissues develop from, scientists now have the ability to produce more cells to study and test on to find cures and treatments for heart related diseases.

This discovery is vital to any research involving heart attacks, strokes, or heart disease. The damage done by a heart attack is in most cases considered to be permanent, but this research may one day change that. In the words of Dr. Keller, "These cells may also be very effective in developing new strategies for repairing damaged hearts, following a heart attack."

Heart cells have been produced from embryonic stem cells before, however this new study produced a detailed, well developed process for doing so that didn't exist before.