Researchers from Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have just published their amazing results with regards to organ bio-fabrication.
Il heart it is the “organ of life” and taking steps to ensure that it can be replaced when “sick” has been the challenge of medicine and science for years.
On April 4 of 1969 the first was officially transplanted artificial heart, then replaced after 65 hours by a human heart but the patient did not survive. Several attempts have been made since 1969 and certainly medicine has progressed surprisingly, although it is still very difficult to say that we have reached a certain point. There are still many risks and many pieces to be completed, but the new one result that Harvard SEAS researchers have reached bodes well.
Also because in the United States the heart disease are widespread and are a major cause of death of the population. Even according to the data collected, on average each 36 seconds a person dies from cardiovascular diseases.
Advances in cardiac medicine
By recreating the helical structure of the heart muscles, researchers have laid the foundations – and more – to be able to really change the fate of medicine. In order to build a human heart from scratch, it is necessary replicate the unique structures that make up the heart. Therefore essential is also the recreation of helical geometries, at the base of the twisting movement of when the heart “beats”.
Il twisting movement it is crucial to pump the blood, but it wasn’t always that clear. Indeed, it was a long way to demonstrate its importance. Thanks to careful studies, research, tests and counter-proofs, the bioengineers of Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) they developed the first biohybrid model of human ventricles con heart cells swinging helically aligned. The researchers have therefore also shown that muscle alignment considerably increases the amount of blood that the ventricle is able to pump with each contraction.
News of fundamental importance achieved thanks to a new method of additive textile production, Focused Rotary Jet Spinning (FRJS), which enabled the high productivity fabrication of helically aligned fibers with diameters ranging from several micrometers to hundreds of nanometers.