BUILDING HOPE : Regeneration by using Nature's platform

The contribution of some dynamic researches have paved the ways for breakthrough solutions of enigmatic problems in medical health science. The phenomena behind the particular expression of a particular gene in a particular organ , being a radical fact has concluded the breakthrough research of engineered bioartificial heart on a natural platform.

The biomimetic tissue engineering has revolutionized the standard of research by turning a cadaveric heart into biocompatible, complex and transplantable heart and undergo the annihilation of graft rejection , donor specificity and immunosuppression issues that always been a hurdle for transplantation. In this research scientist introduced the perfusion decellularization of heart by replacing the immersion decellularization for complete elimination of the cardiac and epithelial cells and then they reseeded the acellular cardiac scaffold with neonatal progenitor stem cells of the recipient and then place the construct into the bioreactor for providing the milieu similar as inside the body for cardiac cell differentiation and maturation. After a couple of weeks the scaffold with stem cells have shown the nascent pumping and synchronous contractions by developing in a mature heart.

The mechanism which executed the whole bioartificial heart development is a natural phenomena of extracellular matrix. The space outside the cells is called extracellular space and the fluid in this space is called extracellular matrix which is composed of a gel in which a number of fibrous proteins and proteoglycans are suspended. The specific proteoglycans in the extracellular matrix bind to certain cell surface receptors called integrins which then undergo the configurational changes in the cytoplasmic domains of the integrins which results the binding of domains with the cytoskeleton and protein kinases which initiate the signals transfer to the cell nucleus to influence the cell growth, cell division and expression of certain genes. It enables the development of neonatal progenitor cells into the mature cardiac cells. The bioreactor had played the most important role to disguise for cells by providing the milieu of invivo variations.

The rekindling of life in a cardiac heart scaffold had a number of challenges. To retain the factor of reminiscent extracellular matrix in a cadaveric heart by dissolving the detergent in a right amount was a milestone upon which the whole heart construction was dependent. The reseeded bioartificial heart has fortified the promising treatments of congenital and other heart diseases. This approach of research can be applied to a variety of mammalian organs like lung ,liver, kidney and muscle. By following this technique the first bioartificial trachea has been transplanted by regeneration using patients own stem cells.

About Author / Additional Info:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100713191219.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18193059