Patches to Fix Damaged Hearts

WASHINGTON: Researchers have identified the early master cells that make up the human heart and said on Wednesday they could someday be used to make  patches to fix damaged hearts.

Kenneth Chien of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital said his team is now looking for intermediate cells that are on their way to becoming beating heart muscle, the cells that line the arteries, and other heart cell types.

Chien’s team worked entirely with human cells and found the human heart develops differently from hearts in mice — a surprising finding.

In mice, the progenitor cells that Chien’s team found exist for just 48 hours. But a mouse develops from conception to birth in three weeks, while humans gestate for nine months.

And it turns out the human heart develops from patches of these early heart stem cells. Another surprise — these patches of stem cells tend to congregate in areas linked with congenital heart disease, including the heart valves and pumping chambers.

Chien said scientists may one day grow patches to fix areas damaged by heart attacks, or faulty valves.