Biological Pacemaker: Heart cells beat to the pulsing of blue light
Genetically modified cells that respond to light can be used to stimulate heart tissue to beat, new research reveals.
A light-powered pacemaker would use less power than an artificial one requiring electricity. It’ll likely be more precise too. Technology Review reports .
The field of optogenetics – combining genetic manipulation with simple beams of light – has allowed scientists to control brain cells, altering brain activity and even behavior. This normally involves genetically engineering cells with light-sensitive proteins that can be activated with, well, light.
Now, light-sensitive cells could become the conductor of the heart’s rhythm, creating a biological pacemaker constructed from the patient’s own cells.
Biological pacemakers usually incorporate cells that are genetically engineered to beat spontaneously in a specified manner. Normally, in order to beat synchronously, heart muscle cells run a tight communication scheme; they’re coupled to one another through cell junctions.
So Emilia Entcheva and from Stony Brook University colleagues figured it should be possible to inject a small cluster of light-sensitive cells into normal tissue, allowing those cells to couple with, and orchestrate, the beating of the surrounding tissue.
They created light-sensitive cells and paired them with heart cells. When stimulated by low-energy blue light, this hybrid cell cluster contracted in waves that matched the electrical pulses.One day, it might be possible to harvest cells from a patient and genetically alter them to respond to light . Then, by injecting enough of these modified cells, the entire heart can be paced by light .
This would give us “unprecedented” resolution, which would make it possible to target specific parts of the heart.
And! Light would use less power than electricity . It’ll probably be delivered through thin fiber-optic cables.
Tight Junction Muscle Tissue - News
Normally, in order to beat synchronously, heart muscle cells run a tight communication scheme; they're coupled to one another through cell junctions. So Emilia Entcheva and from Stony Brook University colleagues figured it should be possible to inject
led by Emilia Entcheva, a bioengineer at SUNY Stony Brook, decided to take advantages of the tight communication between heart-muscle cells. These cells beat synchronously because they are coupled to one another through cell junctions.
The whole experience of getting in and out is so tricky but the whole thing kind ends up working because it's got enough big American muscle behind it. But is that really what should have emerged from what the proposition was to start with?
Tight Junction Muscle Tissue - Bookshelf
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