Bioengineered external heart

Earlier this year tissue engineers at the University of Minnesota have created the first externally engineered heart. They stripped a rat’s heart of its own cells using a kind of bleach solution. Afterwards they infused the adult rat heart cells with that of a newborn rat. This takes quite a bit of time and skill but many of the scientists argee that this is a landmark in the field of tissue engineering. Being able to engineer organs could one day result in the making of biocompatible transplant organs for patients. We are nowhere near this point right now but it is still a field of research that deserves much attention.
There are many challenges in created a working heart for humans in an external environment. First of all the heart muscle is very thick and tissue engineers have not found a way yet to ensure that enough oxygen gets to the inner layers of the heart muscle. That and creating the necessary scaffolding for a three dimensional structure is on the top of the list of major problems. The easiest part about the project is that for heart cells you don’t have to tell them to beat in synchrony because they already know to do that.
Many of the researchers at the University of Minnesota are very optimistic and hope to have a working human heart and hopefully other organs such kidneys, livers, and lungs. They wish to have at least a working one of these within 15 years. These are very optimistic propositions but nonetheless it has been a great achievement in the biomedical industry.
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/13751901.html