Phoenix Heart: Replacing a heart’s cells could ease transplants
In a step toward growing complex organs for transplants, researchers have stripped all the cells from dead rat hearts and injected the gelatinous empty structures with living heart cells from newborn rats. Eight days later, the repopulated hearts were beating, albeit feebly.
Eventually, doctors might be able to use this approach to make new hearts or other organs for transplantation by growing a patient’s own cells inside a hollowed-out organ from a pig or cadaver. Because the cells are derived from the patient, his or her body would be less likely to reject the organ.