Scientists have developed beating heart tissue from stem cells, an advance that could help screen for drugs likely to generate cardiac birth defects and guide decisions about which drugs are dangerous during pregnancy. University of California Berkeley researchers, in collaboration with scientists at the Gladstone Institutes, have developed a template for growing beating cardiac tissue from stem cells, creating a system that could serve as a model for early heart development and as a drug-screening tool to make pregnancies safer.
In experiments published in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers used biochemical and biophysical cues to prompt stem cells to differentiate and self-organise into micron-scale cardiac tissue, including microchambers. "We believe it is the first example illustrating the process of a developing human heart chamber in vitro," said Kevin Healy, a UC…
