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Technique for Bioengineering Cell Sheets Used to Repair Damaged Heart Muscle Is Described in Tissue Engineering

Posted on: Friday, 31 March 2006, 12:00 CST

Cardiac cells grown in the laboratory as cell sheets can be layered to form myocardial tissue grafts which, when transplanted into animals, will beat like normal cardiac muscle and can survive and function for at least a year, according to a report in the March 2006 issue (Volume 12, Number 3) issue of Tissue Engineering, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The paper is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/ten.

Tatsuya Shimizu, MD, PhD, Hidekazu Sekine, MS, Yuki Isoi, Masayuki Yamato, PhD, Akihiko Kikuchi, PhD, and Teruo Okano, PhD, from the Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Science, Tokyo Women's Medical University (Japan), describe their promising method of fabricating three-dimensional pulsatile myocardial tissue grafts using a technique called "cell sheet engineering" in a paper entitled, "Long-Term Survival and Growth of Pulsatile Myocardial Tissue Grafts Engineered by the Layering of Cardiomyocyte Sheets."

"While tissue engineering of complex three dimensional organs lies in the future, the engineering of sheets of functional tissue is an important, contemporary achievement. Shimizu, et al. have made an important advance by applying this approach to a life threatening physiological problem: heart failure," says Peter C. Johnson, M.D., President and CEO of Scintellix, LLC and Co-Editor in Chief of Tissue Engineering.

This novel, cell-based therapeutic strategy for repairing damaged heart muscle would provide an alternative source of heart tissue grafts for transplantation and offers advantages over conventional tissue engineering approaches that seed cardiac cells onto biodegradable scaffolds.

Using an "intelligent" culture surface, Shimizu and colleagues grew sheets of rat cardiac cells. When the culture temperature is reduced, the cell sheets spontaneously detach from the culture surface, without the need for harsh or destructive chemicals. The cell sheets can then be layered one on top of another, and they will adhere to each other to form a 3-D tissue graft. The researchers then transplanted the tissue grafts into rats.

By assessing the growth, morphological development, and functional capacity of the bioengineered tissue the researchers demonstrated its ability to beat in response to electrical stimulation and to form vascular networks, ensuring an adequate blood supply. They confirmed the survival of the pulsatile myocardial tissue at the site of implantation up to one year later.

Tissue Engineering is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly in print and online that brings together scientific and medical experts in the fields of biomedical engineering, material science, molecular and cellular biology, and genetic engineering. Tissue Engineering is the official journal of the Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS). Tables of contents and a free sample issue may be viewed online at www.liebertpub.com/ten.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Human Gene Therapy, Stem Cells and Development, and Cloning and Stem Cells. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 60 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available at www.liebertpub.com.

Source: Business Wire

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