Some day, heart attack survivors might have a patch of
laboratory-grown muscle placed in their heart, to replace areas
that died during their attack. Children born with defective
heart valves might get new ones that can grow in place, rather
than being replaced every few years. And people with clogged or
weak blood vessels might get a new “natural” replacement,
instead of a factory-made one. These possibilities are all
within reach, and could transform the way heart care is
delivered, say University of Michigan Medical School researchers
in the new issue of the journal Regenerative Medicine.
Technology has advanced so much in recent years, they write,
that scientists are closer than ever to “bioengineering” entire
areas of the heart, as well as heart valves and major blood
vessels. But hurdles still remain before the products of this
tissue engineering are ready to be implanted in patients as
replacements for diseased or malformed structures, the team
notes. Among the hurdles: determining which types of cells