Research into treatments for cardiovascular disease has come a long way in recent decades, but heart problems still kill 18 million people around the world each year.
A tiny working model of a human ventricle could open fresh new ground in developing novel drugs and therapies and for studying the development of cardiovascular conditions.
Researchers from the University of Toronto and University of Montreal in Canada have created a vessel that beats just like a human embryo's heart.
The University of Toronto has a model that can be used to measure ejection volume and the pressure of the fluid.
These were almost impossible to get with previous models.
There are a limited number of options for studying how a healthy or sick heart moves blood.
Organs that have been removed from an autopsy give authenticity without activity. Tissue cultures can provide a glimpse into biochemical function, but they don't fully capture the functions of a three-dimensional mass.
It isn't always the most ethical to use an animal model to test how a living heart works.
A new heart-like organ was grown in a lab using synthetic and biological materials, joining a wave of 3D models of body parts that develop and behave just as nature intended.
The cells themselves were derived from the cardiovascular tissues of young rats and grown on a layer of scaffold printed with grooves for directing the tissue's growth.
The structure was forced to mimic the heart muscles of a human left ventricle because of the flat mesh.
The team used a cone shaped shaft to turn the triple layers of heart cells into a chamber. There is a quick roll in the tissue sample. The tube of cardiac muscle cells was made using a series of small electrical shocks.
There have only been a few attempts to create a truly 3D model of a ventricle.
A single layer of cells has been used to make most of them. The cells in a real heart are oriented in different ways. The layers contract and twist when the heart beats. The heart is able to pump more blood because of this.
With an internal diameter of just half a millimeter, the vessel is barely able to expel liquid from an adult's heart.
The model is a great proof of concept and could be bulked up to represent a stronger system in the future.
With time, the scaffold could be removed and a variety of human-derived tissues could be incorporated, not just improving the structure as a model but leading the way to a fully functional, transplantable organ.
Radisic says that the models can be used to study not only cell function, but tissue function and organ function, all without the need for animal experimentation.
They can be used to screen for positive or negative effects of drug candidates.
The research was published in a journal.
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