Scientists create tiny hearts to revolutionize heart disease treatment

Sydney: Researchers have created lab grown heart tissues that closely mimic adult heart muscle, marking a significant advance in treating genetic hear...

Sydney: Researchers have created lab-grown heart tissues that closely mimic adult heart muscle, marking a significant advance in treating genetic heart diseases in children.

Scientists have successfully developed lab-grown miniature heart tissues, known as cardiac organoids, that closely replicate adult human heart muscle, announced Friday by QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in collaboration with the Melbourne-based Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the Royal Children's Hospital.

Created from human pluripotent stem cells, these organoids overcome a key limitation. Traditionally, stem-cell-derived heart cells remain immature. Researchers activated specific biological pathways to simulate exercise effects, maturing the cells to behave like genuine adult heart tissue, according to the release from QIMR Berghofer.

The study, published in Nature Cardiovascular Research, demonstrates how these advanced cardiac organoids can be used to test new drugs for heart conditions.

"There's a huge benefit to studying heart diseases in this way. Using human cardiac organoids allows us to screen many more compounds, speeding up the process of drug development," said James Hudson from QIMR Berghofer's Cardiac Bioengineering Lab.