New method to transform skin cells into heart tissue

New method to transform skin cells into heart tissue
For the first time in medical history scientists have been able to transform skin cells into healthy heart muscle tissue. The ground-breaking experiment was conducted by a team from Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. The research was led by Professor Lior Gepstein, who described the importance of his findings to the Voice of Russia.
Yulia Monakhova; For the first time in medical history scientists have been able to transform skin cells into healthy heart muscle tissue. The ground-breaking experiment was conducted by a team from Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. The research was led by Professor Lior Gepstein, who described the importance of his findings to the Voice of Russia. Scientists expect this research to be very promising and not just for the treatment of heart diseases. Potentially it could be used in curing diabetes and different central nervous system disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. The input material for this was the skin cells of a couple of elderly patients suffering from impaired cardiac function. The researchers managed to “grow” healthy heart cells from these samples and inject it into an animal’s heart. The experiment showed that the cells can survive and integrate into the existing heart tissue. The results give hope as – in theory – there shouldn’t be any rejection of the tissue of the “donor” himself. The two elderly patients, whose cells were sampled, had suffered from heart attacks. Scientists were able to grow from those samples in the laboratory healthy heart muscle tissue, which was then transplanted into mice. This technology, which is the basis of the study, was developed by Japanese researcher Shinya Yamanaka. He was able to show that one could re-program adult cells to cells which resemble the earlier cells in the embryo. These cells can become any cell-type in the body. He called the cells to be generated “induced pluripotent stem cells” or “iPS-cells”. In other words, Yamanaka proved that it is possible to transform a regular cell into the equivalent of human embryonic stem cells. The innovation prompted Professor Gepstein to start his own research into stem-cells and using them to cure heart diseases. Gepstein described the future of his treatment to the Voice of Russia: “In this study we tried to see whether you can take skin cells from elderly and very sick individuals that have had heart failure and use them to generate heart cells. We took skin cells from patients with heart-failure, re-programmed them to generate iPS-cells, and then we took these stem-cells and differentiated them to generate heart cells. The heart cells of the patients themselves were very sick; they had dysfunctional heart cells, because they were suffering from heart failure and previous heart attacks. The heart cells that we generated from their skin cells were healthy and young, similar to heart cells of these specific patients at the time, when they were born.” Gepstein noted that if their method is approved, it will take at least 5-10 years before clinical use of this technology. “One of the problems that involved the use of iPS-cells is the concern that they may become tumorigenic or form cancer, so we need to make sure that this will not happen and will be extremely safe. Another obstacle is to improve the ability of the cells not only to engraft and survive, but also to mature and contribute to the function of the heart.” The scientists also still need to scale up the procedure. Currently they can make a few million heart cells, but a typical heart attack which leads to heart failure can kill roughly a billion healthy cells. Source: The Voice of Russia
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Smartphones May Soon Include High Power Microscopes


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Photo by ANU Photographer Stuart Hay
Australian scientists have invented a simple and cheap way of making a high-powered lens that can transform a smart phone into a high-resolution microscope. Costing less than a cent, the lenses promise a revolution in science and medicine in developing countries and remote areas. The lens fabrication technique was invented by Dr Steve Lee from The Australian National University (ANU) Research School of Engineering, who collaborated with Dr Tri Phan from Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research to find ways to transform the lentil-sized lens into a medical imaging tool. The lenses are made by using the natural shape of liquid droplets. “We put a droplet of polymer onto a microscope cover slip and then invert it. Then we let gravity do the work, to pull it into the perfect curvature,” Dr Lee said. “By successively adding small amounts of fluid to the droplet, we discovered that we can reach a magnifying power of up to 160 times with an imaging resolution of four micrometers.” The polymer, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), is the same as that used for contact lenses, and it won’t break or scratch. “It would be perfect for the third world. All you need is a fine tipped tool, a cover slip, some polymer and an oven,” Dr Lee said. The first droplet lens was made by accident. “I nearly threw them away. I happened to mention them to my colleague Tri Phan, and he got very excited,” Dr Lee said. “So then I decided to try to find the optimum shape, to see how far I could go. When I saw the first images of yeast cells I was like, ‘Wow!’” Dr Lee and his team worked with Dr Phan to design a lightweight 3D-printable frame to hold the lens, along with a couple of miniature LED lights for illumination, and a coin battery. The technology taps into the current citizen science revolution, which is rapidly transforming owners of smart phones into potential scientists. There are also exciting possibilities for remote medical diagnosis. Dr Phan said the tiny microscope has a
Photo by ANU photographer Stuart Hay
wide range of potential uses, particularly if coupled  with the right smartphone apps. “This is a whole new era of miniaturization and portability – image analysis software could instantly transform most smartphones into sophisticated mobile laboratories,” Dr Phan said. “I am most able to see the potential for this device in the practice of medicine, although I am sure specialists in other fields will immediately see its value for them.” Dr Lee said the low-cost lens had already attracted interest from a German group interested in using disposable lenses for tele-dermatology. “There are also possibilities for farmers,” he said. “They can photograph fungus or insects on their crops, upload the pictures to the internet where a specialist can identify if they are a problem or not.” The lens making technology is described in the latest issue of Biomedical Optics Express, published by The Optical Society. Contacts and sources: Australian National University. Source: Article
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