Scientists create Biological Pacemakers by transplanting gene into hearts Thursday 17 July 2014 Patients with irregular heartbeats or blockages often need an artificial pacemaker to replace the hearts defective pacemaker duties. But now, cardiologists from the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, CA, have created a gene transplant procedure that transforms heart cells into a biological pacemaker that regulates the hearts beating. In the US alone, around 300,000 patients receive pacemakers each year, but the devices come with certain side effects, such as infection of the leads connecting the pacemaker to the heart. The teams findings, which are published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, are the culmination of a dozen years of research aimed at creating biological solutions for pacemaker patients with heart rhythm disorders. The American Heart Association explain how, in the absence of the hearts natural pacemaker functions, an artificial pacemaker works. The hearts natural pacemaker is known as the sinoatrial (SA) node or sinus node, which is a small clump of specialized cells in the upper chamber of the heart. This node makes the electrical impulses that prompt the heart to beat. When an electrical impulse or signal moves across a chamber of the heart, it contracts. However, the signal must travel down a specific path to reach the hearts lower chambers; when the SA is defective, the heart could beat too fast, too slow or irregularly. Additionally, rhythm problems can happen due to a blockage of the hearts electrical pathways. This is where an artificial pacemaker comes in, to send electrical impulses to the heart to help it pump properly. However, the researchers have come up with a procedure that uses the hearts own cells to regulate the rhythm. medicalnewstoday/articles/279760.php youtube/watch?v=m4g248vvk9I
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 21:54:06 +0000
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