Skin cells were
reprogrammed into iPS cells, which were then differentiated
into heart cells.
Heart cells are shown. Blue indicates nucle
(January 10, 2016) Scientists
at the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University,
Japan, show that skin cells can be used to treat injured hearts.
Following a heart attack or other heart trauma, the heart is
unable to replace its dead cells. Patients are often left with little option
other than heart transplants, which are rarely available, or more recently cell
therapies that transplant heart cells into the patient's heart. In far too many
cases, however, the transplanted heart cells do not engraft well, resulting in
poor recovery.
One reason for the engraftment problem is the quality of the
heart cells. For a typical cell therapy, heart cells are made from different
stem cells, but the quality of the heart cells will vary. In particular, the
maturation of the heart cells will be different. "Cells of different
maturation will be mixed and transplanted together," said Dr. Shunsuke Funakoshi, a scientist at
the Center for iPS Research and Applications (CiRA), Kyoto University, and
first author of a new study that investigated the optimal maturation of heart
cells for the transplant, leading him to wonder if maturation is a factor in
engraftment.