For the first time, a three-dimensional human cardiac tissue complete with blood vessels have been constructed using human embryonic stem cells. This offers potentials for use in studies of cardiac development, function and tissue replacement therapy.

The researchers engineered the heart muscle by seeding a sponge-like, three-dimensional plastic scaffold with heart muscle cells and blood vessel cells produced by human embryonic stem cells, along with cells called embryonic fibroblasts.

As the next step, the scientists are planning to perform animal trials and transplant the tissue into living hearts to study how well the heart muscle adapts in vivo.

More details from the American Technion Society News. The study has been recently published online in the journal Circulation Research.

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