Beating Heart Cells Created From Human Skin Cells in New Study

Human cells grown in mice were used in the study.

ByABC News
April 28, 2016, 6:11 PM

— -- Scientists have found a new way to transform human skin cells into heart-like cells in mice by using chemicals instead of genetic modification, in what some experts are calling a major breakthrough.

Researchers used a chemical cocktail that affected the DNA replication and prompted the cells to convert into a heart-like cell, according to a new study published in the journal Science that shows promise in the field of tissue regeneration.

When researchers transplanted these cells into a mouse heart with dead heart cells -- a scenario very similar to the aftermath of a heart attack -- the treated skin cells were able to function as heart-like cells.

The study addresses a key problem for heart attack survivors. Because heart muscle cells do not recover well from injury, injured heart muscle can lead to a lifetime of problems, including heart failure for heart attack survivors.

These findings create a “new avenue for creating heart cells,” said Dr. Richard Lee, a professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard University, who was not involved in the study.

He called the findings a “big step” and “potentially game changing.”

“It might be easier to make a patient’s own heart cells than we previously thought,” he added.

The study findings suggest that it may be possible to turn a patient's own skin cells into heart muscle, then transplant them back in the patient, according to Shen Ding, senior investigator at Gladstone Institute and professor of stem cell research and pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco.

Until now, the conversion of skin cells into heart-like cells has required adding and modifying genes, which has not shown a high rate of success. Of the heart-like cells generated using genetic methods, only about 0.1 percent behave like heart cells, by beating spontaneously, for example.

In this study, when using the cocktail of molecules, 97 percent of the reprogrammed cells behaved like heart cells.

“Efficiency and authenticity are much better and this is why we feel very excited,” Ding said.

In the distant future, Ding is hopeful that a medication might contain molecules similar to those in his study.

In theory, this medication could help treat the scarred heart tissue that can develop after a heart attack. Someday, it may be possible to target this damaged tissue and change it into functional, heart muscle cells through medication.

“It is actually a very impressive breakthrough," Lee said.

Dr. Dawit Demissie is a pediatric resident at Indiana University and a resident in the ABC News Medical Unit.