In the USA, scientists have created a chip that imitates the properties of the human heart: why it is important
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A team of scientists from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles developed a heart chip.
Researchers believe that such technology will help to study the heart in more detail and check its condition during the fight against cancer, writes Science Alert.
Among the notable improvements over previous heart chip models is the maturity of the cells the team developed from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). This chip is able to imitate the beating of the human heart – at a speed of about 60 beats per minute.
“Systems such as the heart chip could reduce the reliance on animals traditionally used for preclinical testing of drug cardiotoxicity,” – the researchers write in their published article.
An important part of the design of the heart chip is two parallel channels that allow heart cells (cardiomyocytes) and blood vessel cells (endothelial cells) to be separated, as in the human body, but at the same time close enough to interact.
| Scientists have created a chip that imitates the properties of the human heart. Photo: adventtr/Getty Images |
By modeling the blood flow and contraction of the heart in response to the use of certain drugs, scientists can predict potential toxicity problems that could cause arrhythmia or muscle cell death.
“Heart chip enables screening of potentially cardiotoxic chemotherapy drugs on different cardiovascular cell types in a physiologically relevant model,” – write the researchers.
The heart-chip can work for several weeks. This makes it possible to study how different medications and other environmental factors affect the heart. In addition, it can be a tool for studying the intricacies of various diseases of the cardiovascular system.
“These results suggest that heart chips can be used to screen for drug toxicity and can reveal potential specific cell responses in response to cardiotoxic compounds.”the developers concluded.
Previously, we talked about a unique operation on the heart, which was carried out with the help of a da Vinci robot surgeon.
Vira Shurmakevich, “UP. Life”
Read also: Heart attack: 5 facts about the most common work of the heart
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