WIKIMEDIA, GUIDO GERDINGThe technique: Injecting pig hearts with the gene for transcription factor TBX18 converts muscle cells into pacemaker cells that can restore missing heartbeats, according to a paper published today (July 16) in Science Translational Medicine. The technique may soon be applicable to patients who need to have their own electronic pacemakers removed.
“This is an exciting preclinical advance that makes the prospect of a biological pacemaker closer to reality,” said Jonathan Epstein, a professor of cardiovascular research at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the study. “The work is also fascinating and promising because it shows that transdifferentiation or direct reprogramming—that is, changing one cell type into another by delivering specific genes—may lead to new medical therapies sooner than expected,” he added.
The significance: Electronic pacemakers have been used to regulate patients’ heartbeats for more than 50 years and are “generally very reliable” said Eugenio Cingolani, director of the Cardiogenetics-Familial Arrhythmia Clinic at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, who led the new study. However, they are not entirely without problems. “Like any ...
