A “ghost heart” grown with scaffolding from a pig’s organ and human cells may soon be used in human transplants, experts say.
A molecular biologist said that after seeing heart cells beat in unison in a petri dish, she can “truly imagine building a personalized human heart.”
Doris Taylor, director of regenerative medicine research at Texas Heart Institute, said that by using a patient’s own tissues, they were able to create a viable option with pig cells that the body will not reject.
“It actually changed my life,” Taylor told CNN. “I said to myself, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s life.’ I wanted to figure out the how and why, and re-create that to save lives.”
Taylor said the innovative replacement could potentially become a planned procedure rather than a last-minute surgery.
“That reduces your risk by eliminating the need for [antirejection] drugs, by using your own cells to build that heart it reduces the cost .. and you aren’t in the hospital as often so it improves your quality of life.”
Taylor also presented a robot that was taught to administer the human stem cells into the ghost heart in a sterile environment.
The biologist showed a video of the translucent manufactured heart turning pink after it was injected.
“It’s the first shot at truly curing the number one killer of men, women, and children worldwide – heart disease. And then I want to make it available to everyone,” the scientist excitedly shared.
CEO of Advanced Solution Michael Golway applauded Taylor’s work and tenacity in the years-long project.
“At any point, Dr. Taylor could have easily said ‘I’m done, this just isn’t going to work,'” Golway told CNN.
“But she persisted for years, fighting setbacks to find the right type of cells in the right quantities and right conditions to enable those cells to be happy and grow.”
Taylor first came interested in growing hearts when she worked on a team in 1998 at Duke University.
The team injected cells into a rabbit’s failed heart and created new heart muscle.
However, whenever she attempted to translate the success onto human biology it was hit or miss.
“We were putting cells into damaged or scarred regions of the heart and hoping that would overcome the existing damage,” Taylor said.
“I started thinking: What if we could get rid of that bad environment and rebuild the house?”
In 2008, Taylor found real success when she and the team at the University of Minnesota rid a rat’s heart of cells and started working with the translucent skeleton left behind.
After this breakthrough, she moved into pig’s hearts because of their anatomical similarity to humans.
“I’m just humbled and privileged to do this work, and proud of where we are,” Taylor said.
“The technology is ready. I hope everyone is going to be along with us for the ride because this is game-changing.”
This story originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced here with permission.