Ordinary Heart Cells Become 'Biological Pacemakers'

 Injection of Single Gene :

Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute researchers have reprogrammed normal heart cells to become exact replicas of highly specialized pacemaker cells by injecting a single gene (Tbx18)-an important step forward in the search for a therapy of a decade-long biological to correct irregular heartbeats and bankrupt.
Progress was published in the journal Nature Biotechnology .
"Although we and others have created primitive biological pacemaker before, this study is the first to demonstrate that a single gene can direct conversion of the heart muscle cells to genuine pacemaker cells. The new cells spontaneously generated electrical impulses were indistinguishable from native pacemaker cells, "said Hee Cheol Cho, PhD., a scientist at the Heart Research Institute.
Pacemaker cells generate electrical activity that spreads to other cells in the heart in an orderly pattern to create rhythmic muscle contractions. If these cells go wrong, the heart pumps erratically best, healthy patients undergoing surgery often use electronic pacemaker as the only option for survival.
The heartbeat originates in the sinoatrial node (SAN) in the upper right chamber of the heart, which are grouped pacemaker cells. Of the 10 billion heart cells, fewer than 10,000 are pacemaker cells, often known as SAN cells. Once reprogrammed by the Tbx18 gene, pacemaker cells newly created - "San" ISAN induced cells or cells - had all the key features of natural pacemaker SAN and kept their similar characteristics, even after the effects of Tbx18 gene was gone .
But researchers at Cedars-Sinai, using a virus designed to carry a single gene (Tbx18) plays a key role in embryonic development of pacemaker cells directly reprogrammed heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) to specialized pacemaker cells. The new cells made in the distinctive characteristics and function of native pacemaker cells, both in cells and in laboratory studies of guinea pig reprogramming.
Previous efforts to generate new cells result in pacemaker cells of the heart muscle that can overcome on their own. However, the modified cells were closest to the muscle cells for normal pacemaker cells. Other methods used to obtain embryonic stem cells pacemaker cells. However, the risk of contamination of cancer cells is a persistent obstacle to the realization of the potential of embryonic stem cell therapeutic approach. The new work, just amazing, have pacemaker cells that closely resemble native cancer risk free.
For his work on biological pacemaker technology, Cho, last author of the article, recently won the Louis N. and Arnold M. Katz Basic Research Prize, the Young Investigator Award from the American Heart Association.

"This is the culmination of 10 years of work in our lab to build a biological pacemaker as an alternative to electronic stimulation devices," said Eduardo Marban, MD, PhD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and Mark S. Siegel Family Professor, a pioneer in cardiac stem cell research. A clinical trial of stem cell therapy for patients Marbán heart attack recently found that the experimental treatment helped regenerate damaged hearts healthy muscle.
If the investigation confirms and supports the findings of studies of pacemaker cells, researchers believe that therapy can be administered by injection Tbx18 in the heart of a patient or the creation of pacemaker cells in the laboratory and transplanted into the heart. However, the safety and efficacy another must be carried out before human trials can begin.