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Scientists step closer to 'bioartificial' heart

This news item was added on 13th January 2008

US researchers have for the first time created a beating heart using a dead heart implanted with live cells.

The demand for organs for transplantation has never been higher, with more than 8,000 people currently waiting for an organ in the UK.

However, many patients die before an organ becomes available, making research into creating organs all the more vital.

Scientists from the University of Minnesota succeeded in removing the cells from dead rats' and pigs' hearts and replacing them with live cells taken from newborn animals.

Publishing their findings in the journal Nature Medicine, they reveal that contractions started after four days.

By the eighth day, the hearts were pumping at around two per cent of adult strength.

The study is being regarded as a first step towards creating bioartificial organs for use in transplants.

Principal investigator Dr Doris Taylor, director of the university's Centre for Cardiovascular Repair, commented: "It opens a door to this notion that you can make any organ - kidney, liver, lung, pancreas - you name it and we hope we can make it."