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Scientists have grown Pacemaker cells
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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At the McEwen Center for Regenerative Medicine, scientists have succeeded for the first time in growing pacemaker cells in laboratory conditions that control the heart. The head of the new project is Stephanie Protze, he explained that his colleagues have succeeded in creating cells whose main function is to control the heart rhythm. Such cells are concentrated in one of the areas of the heart muscle and if they stop coping with their functions, a person needs a pacemaker for normal life.
The work by Protze's team follows a series of studies in which the scientists have carefully studied which signaling molecules are responsible for the process of transforming stem cells into pacemaker cells. One of the researchers noted that in the process, they are replicating in a petri dish the way nature itself creates cells.
Pacemaker cells grown in test tubes have already been tested in laboratory rodents and have shown normal function.
According to scientists, this work has great potential; in the future, thanks to the work of Protze and his colleagues, it may be possible to learn how to create more effective biological pacemakers compared to mechanical ones. Unfortunately, at least 5 years will pass before the start of clinical trials involving people, since the new method needs to be well tested on an animal model.
Today, mechanical pacemakers are used in medicine, which are being improved for more efficient operation and patient convenience. For example, models have already been created that not only stimulate the heart muscle with electrical discharges, but can also recognize emotions, which affects the pacemaker's operation - a feeling of fear causes a change in heart rate, which brings a person's sensations as close to natural as possible.
For quite some time now, scientists have been trying to create a method that would allow a sick heart to be restored. According to scientists, studying the molecular processes that occur in the heart will sooner or later allow positive results to be achieved, and scientists from the University of Aberdeen have already come close to their goal. Experts have found that the heart muscle is practically incapable of restoring itself after damage, but there is still a way that will help it do so. During intrauterine development, muscle cells are reproduced in the embryo, but after the child is born, this ability disappears. Studies have shown that a small number of stem cells remain in the adult heart that can become heart cells.
Specialists have learned to influence heart cells, or so-called cardiomyocytes, which helps stem cells to grow, in addition, experts have found out that in the embryo, a signal is transmitted from one cell to another, which starts the process of tissue formation. The process is controlled by signal molecules and if you influence them, you can provoke the growth of the necessary cells.
Experts noted that knowing the molecular process, it is possible to develop effective treatment methods and initiate the process of heart restoration artificially.
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