Scientists from the University of Osaka, Japan, have announced that they have successfully completed the transplantation of the heart muscle tissue for the first time. Instead of replacing the patient’s heart with a completely new organ, the researchers placed tissues containing the heart muscle cells in the damaged areas of the heart. If the expected effect appears after the operation, the need for heart transplants may eventually disappear. The team used induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) to produce heart muscle cells . iPS are stem cells that researchers create by reproducing an adult human’s cells from their skin or blood and reprogramming them into their pluripotent states. The researchers then performed the transplantation by creating heart muscle tissue from iPS cells. At this point, the team can turn iPS cells into any cell they want. New heart muscle tissue transplant may be a good alternative to heart transplant The transplant patient suffered from ischemic cardiomyopathy , a condition in which the heart had difficulty pumping blood, and his muscles were not getting enough blood. In more advanced cases, a heart transplant may also be required, but Osaka University researchers aim to release a protein that helps muscle cells to regenerate blood vessels, thereby improving patients’ heart function . The researchers plan to follow the patient over the next year and implement the same procedure on 9 people suffering from the same disease in the next 3 years. If the results are successful, the applied method may become an alternative to heart transplants. iPS cells can make it much easier to find a suitable heart donor . Also, the recipient is more likely to tolerate the immune system than a new organ. “I saw many lives I couldn’t save, and I hope the transplant will become a medical technology that will save as many people as possible , ” says researcher Yoshiki Sawa . said. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) were first developed by Shinya Yamanaka from Kyoto University in Japan . With this important discovery, Yamanaka was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2012.
