Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) at Imperial College London have overcome two significant obstacles on the road to harnessing stem cells to build patches for damaged hearts.
Presenting the research at a UK Stem Cell Initiative conference today (13 December) in Coventry, research leader Professor Sian Harding will explain how her group have made significant progress in maturing beating heart cells (cardiomyocytes) derived from embryonic stem cells and in developing the physical scaffolding that would be needed to hold the patch in place in the heart in any future clinical application.
From the outset the Imperial College researchers have been aiming to solve two problems in the development of a stem cell heart patch. The first is undesirable side effects, such as arrhythmia, that can result from immature and undeveloped cardiomyocytes being introduced to the heart. The second is the need for a scaffold that is biocompatible with the heart and able to hold the new cardiomyocytes in place while they integrate into the existing heart tissue. Matching the material to human heart muscle is also hoped to prevent deterioration of heart function before the cells take over.
Professor Harding will tell the conference that the stem cell team, led by Dr Nadire Ali, co-investigator on the grant, have managed to follow beating embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes for up to seven months in the laboratory and demonstrate that these cells do mature. In this period the cells have coordinated beating activity, and they adopt the mature controls found in the adult heart by approximately four months after their generation from embryonic stem cells. These developed cardiomyocytes will then be more compatible with adult heart and less likely to cause arrhythmias.