Using stem cells to mend broken hearts

BHF Centre of Regenerative Medicine funded by our Mending Broken Hearts Appeal

The main goal of the Centre based at Imperial College London is to grow new, beating heart muscle to graft on to damaged hearts, helping them beat more strongly again. It’s an ambitious goal which involves cooperation between scientists at Imperial and other UK universities, including Nottingham. This approach is called tissue engineering, and will use stem cells to create new heart muscle. Tissue engineers have already made other body parts – such as skin and windpipes – from stem cells, and transplanted them successfully into human patients. But the heart is far more complex than the windpipe. It's a mix of different types of cell, all lined up perfectly in the right proportions and directions to beat together in a highly controlled way. Researchers at the new centre, to which we have pledged £2.5m, aim to meet the challenge of growing working new heart muscle. The centre will be headed by Imperial's Professor of Cardiac Pharmacology, Sian Harding, who is a leading figure in the study of heart muscle cells in the failing heart. They will also help to take a separate programme of work to the next stage - growing new heart muscle from dormant stem cells in the heart. This research will be led by BHF Professor Michael Schneider, who discovered that the adult heart contains a very small population of apparently dormant stem cells that could be targeted with medicines and then used to help the heart to repair itself after a heart attack.