A new study conducted by researchers at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel suggests that skin cells could potentially be used to repair damaged heart muscle tissue. The findings were published in the current edition of the European Heart Journal and lead researcher Professor Lior Gepstein says it could be a breakthrough for heart failure patients.
The researcher successfully took skin cells from two men with heart failure and mixed those cells with genetic material and chemicals. Those cells were then transplanted onto the hearts of rats, where they began to grow as heart tissue.
"What is new and exciting about our research is that we have shown that it's possible to take skin cells from an elderly patient with advanced heart failure and end up with his own beating cells in a laboratory dish that are healthy and young - the equivalent to the stage of his heart cells when just born," Gepstein said in the report.
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