Scientists have learned to grow miniature human hearts in the laboratory

Making a little human heartresulting from the work of a team of scientists from the University of Michigan, opens up prospects for a detailed study of various heart diseases, including such a common disease as congenital malformation. Scientists also hope to better understand the early development of the heart in the human fetus.

To obtain a viable "prototype" of the heartthe researchers used adult stem cells and mimicked embryonic intrauterine development. The result was a tiny copy of the heart within a few weeks. The "model" of the human heart has a chamber structure and vascular tissues. The development of the heart was monitored in real time.

The developed methodology is now used forstudying and modeling the treatment of congenital heart defects. Miniature human hearts (organelles) are designed to establish a link between the development of cardiovascular disease and common diseases such as diabetes, as well as the effect on the heart of chemotherapy.

According to the doctors who created the technique,mini-hearts open up great prospects for the creation of reliable models in the study of all types of cardiovascular diseases, with obtaining results of "unprecedented accuracy".

Researchers from all over the world are dedicated toattention to the process of creating artificial hearts. For example, in Chicago and Tel Aviv, the first experiments on printing miniature hearts on a 3D printer have already been carried out. In turn, in Japan, artificial heart tissue was transplanted into the heart, replacing the damaged areas.

Source: engadget