Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in developed nations.  The term is used to describe a variety of conditions affecting the blood vessels and heart.  The most common types of cardiovascular disease include congestive heart failure, cardiac arrest, stroke and coronary heart disease.

Scientists are developing a new treatment that uses stem cells to create “cardiac patches” that can repair the heart.  These stem cell patches will be used to replace scar tissue caused by heart attacks and will reduce the risk of further heart attacks.

After a person has a heart attack, their heart usually becomes scarred.  Unlike the heart muscle, these scars are not flexible and cannot expand or contract.  If the heart is severely scarred, it can lead to heart failure.

The cardiac patches developed by scientists can be created with stem cells or adult heart cells.  The stem cell patches are simply placed on top of the scarred sections of the heart and the scarred tissue is eventually replaced.

One of the hurdles that scientists had to overcome was ensuring the transplanted cells were sending electrical signals to the existing heart muscle cells.  If the new cells did not conduct electricity, the patient’s heart rhythm may be interrupted.

One of the researchers, Dr. Tal Dvir of the Laboratory for Tissues Engineering and Regenerative Medicine at Tel Aviv University in Israel, explains how researchers solved this issue: “We discovered that cells can transfer electrical signals through gold nanowires that transfer the signal from one cell to another.”

The patches have been successfully tested in rodents.  They hope to use the principles discovered in this study on other forms of regenerative medicine procedures.  For example, using gold nano wires inside patches of cells may also be useful for repairing spinal injuries.

Source: Stem cell patch could help doctors mend a broken heart

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