The researchers of Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have devised the first-ever biohybrid model of beating cardiac cells aligned helically.
As a Healthclubfinder report specifies, "the future of cardiac medicine involves tissue engineering." Specifically, it includes the development of a human heart intended for transplant.
The future of cardiac medicine involves tissue engineering. It includes the creation of a human heart for transplant.
This model revealed that the alignment of muscles does, in fact, substantially increase the amount of blood that the ventricle can pump with every contraction.
Focused Rotary Jet Spinning
Essentially, scientists need to duplicate the distinctive structures of the heart to construct one. Such a replication mainly includes the recreation of helical geometries. These are causing the heart to beat in a twisting pattern.
It had been a long-standing thought that this twisting movement was essential for quick blood pumping. Nevertheless, demonstrating this hasn't proven easy.
That is specifically since developing hearts with various geometries and alignments has also proven problematic.
According to a ScienceDaily report, the technology that made this work possible is also known as "focused rotary jet spinning" or FRJS.
Helical Form of the Heart Muscles Simulated
The process is transforming polymers into fibers through the use of centrifugal force. Therefore, helping enable such an advancement.
When they get deposited on a collector, the fibers' direction controls a concentrated airstream. More so, the fibers are twisted when the collector is getting tilted and rotated, simulating the helical form of the heart muscles.
After seeding cardiomyocyte cells into the fibers, the ventricle starts beating. FJRS can rapidly spin fibers at a single micron or around 50 times tinier than an individual human hair.
Contradicting 3D printing, "it becomes slower as features increase," a similar Healthinnovations report specified. In connection to this, when developing a heart, this is crucial.
Major step forward in fabricating an artificial heart, fit for a human https://t.co/mkYilTYBOf @hseas #healthinnovations #health #science #robotics #cyborg
— Healthinnovations (@OriginateHealth) July 9, 2022
The team showed, too, that the procedure has the potential to reach a Minke whale's heart's size and even an actual human heart.
The scaffold was covered with a number of thin layers of beating tissues after around one week. The cells continued aligning themselves based on the fibers beneath.
Technology for Heart Transplants
This study may prove to be a turning point in the development of the technology for heart transplants. Furthermore, it can move doctors closer to completing the human heart's construction.
The team investigated the other uses of their FRJS technology, as well. These include food packaging with fabrication. It is a critical step ahead in fabricating an artificial human heart suitable for a human.
Related information about the artificial hearts is shown on Bloomberg Quicktake's YouTube video below:
RELATED ARTICLE : Mechanical Pump Developed in Australia for Total Replacement of Damaged Hearts; Device Set for Human Trials Later This Year
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