Heart Tissue Is Grown From Rat Cells

CAMBRIDGE -- Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have used rat cells to grow dime-sized swatches of heart tissue that twitch like a beating heart when an electrical current passes through.

The researchers are now trying to patch ailing rodent hearts with the tissue in hopes that it works like a kind of cardiac bandage. If successful, it raises the possibility that human hearts could one day be repaired with tissue grown in the laboratory.

The Boston Globe reported that the MIT findings mark the first time that scientists have successfully used an electrical current to produce dense heart tissue that beats in a rhythm mimicking a live animal's heart.

http://www.newsday.com/news/health/wire/sns-ap-rats-heart-tissue,0,7148507.story?coll=sns-ap-health-headlines

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