Gold patch relieves heart after heart attack

A team of physicists, engineers and experts in materials science from Children's Hospital Boston and the Institute of Technology of Masachusetss (MIT), has combined cells of heart muscle with small nanowires gold 30 nanometer thick, to create innovators cardiac patches whose cells they beat in unison, which could help repair the heart of patients who have suffered heart attack .

"The heart it's a fairly sophisticated electrical part, "he says. Daniel Kohane , professor at MIT and coauthor of work. "It is essential that all cells latan at the same time or the tissue it will not work properly, "he adds.

According to the researchers, in the magazine Nature Nanotechnology , the experiments revealed that the addition of the very fine strands of gold to the cardiac tissue cultivated in the laboratory promotes communication between cells , so that they contract at the same time without needing to stimulate them in each beat. Now they are preparing to study if the patches will work equally well on live animals.

In addition to the repercussions of work on the treatment of cardiovascular diseases , the researchers suggest that the new technology could mean a leap in the engineering of tissues .

"Other researchers could benefit from this idea by applying it to other muscle cells , to other vascular structures, it is even in neuronal systems , because it is a simple way to improve the collective communication of cells ", The chemist underlined Charles Lieber , of the Harvard University , after knowing the work.


Video Medicine: New Patch Can Heal Heart Muscle After Heart Attack (March 2024).