Science Fiction Becomes Reality As The First Adult-Like Human Heart Muscle Has Been Developed Using Stem Cells

We’ve finally reached a point in time where growing organs, tissue and facets of our body have now become a probability in the near future. Taking the advancements we’ve made so far to whole new level, a team of scientists from Columbia University have developed the first adult-like human heart muscle using stem cells.

Apparently, the adult-like human heart muscle was developed in just a matter of four weeks time in the lab from blood-derived human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). 

What’s equally impressive, is that the researchers stated that they were able to reduce the time it would otherwise take from nine months to four weeks.

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"Human cardiac tissues grown in the lab that displays the behaviour of native heart muscle would be transformative for biomedical research," said Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, Biomedical Engineering Professor at the varsity.

"To reach this goal, we forced the cultured heart muscle to go through the foetal-to-postnatal transition by an accelerated development. This was done by using early-stage iPS-CMs and increasing the frequency of electrically induced contractions, little by little, every day.

"The tissues responded, and displayed adult-like gene expression, remarkably organized ultrastructure, and a number of functional features seen in the mature heart muscle, after only four weeks of culture," Vunjak-Novakovic explained.

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According to the study published in journal Nature, the earlier scientists introduced physical stimuli, such as electric and mechanical stimulation, the more responsive the cells were.

"The resulting engineered tissue is truly unprecedented in its similarity to functioning human tissue," said Seila Selimovic, Director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) Tissue Chips program.

"The ability to develop mature cardiac tissue in such a short time is an important step in moving us closer to having reliable human tissue models for drug testing," Selimovic noted.

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It seems like we’re not far away from creating the first fully functional live human heart.