Decellularized Mouse Heart Beats Again After Regenerating With Human Heart Precursor Cells

For the first time, a mouse heart was able to contract and beat again after its own cells were stripped and replaced with human heart precursor cells, said scientists from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The findings, reported online today in Nature Communications, show the promise that regenerating a functional organ by placing human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells -- which could be personalized for the recipient -- in a three-dimensional scaffold could have for transplantation, drug testing models and understanding heart development.