Researchers Create Beating Heart In Lab

Sunday Scientist writes "Minnesota researchers have created a beating heart in the laboratory. In a process called whole organ decellularization, they grew functioning heart tissue by using dead rat and pig hearts as a sort of flesh matrix, and reseeding them with a mixture of live cells. The goal is to grow replacement parts, using their own stem cells, for people born with defective tickers or experiencing heart failure."

Re:Interesting engineering opportunities

[Badgam]

If it exists, there's a fetish for it. So the answer is yes.

Re:Unthinkable just 25 years ago

[cnettel]

Or, maybe, like in many kinds of SF, the specifics of technology available is just as well chosen to make the story interesting, even in hard SF. It's supposed to tickle your imagination, not as a technology roadmap. Hence, to paint the picture of a society where this becomes common practice over the course of generations, of course you need to stipulate that the problem is hard, just like some people chose to assume that somewhat-strong AI or FTL drive is far more feasible than it was maybe reasonable to assume.

Re:Interesting engineering opportunities

[sltd]

The problem is you would have to make it from existing stem cells. You would probably get them from the person, or wherever. If I understand it correctly, you would be limited to normal human physiology, for compatibility reasons. There's the form factor, yes, but also getting everything connected, and you'd have to actually grow a six-chambered heart. At this stage, they're just barely getting a beating heart, so creative engineering like you're suggesting is, at best, quite a way away.

Are you sure about that?

[riseoftheindividual]

"Nearly every sport has a doping and non-doping league already."

There are doping leagues for baseball, basketball, and football? I've never heard of that. Are you talking about a European thing?

"The problem is, people will only pay to see the non-doping leagues at the moment."

In the one sport I know of that does have doping and non-doping, bodybuilding, the doping league is where the money is overwhelmingly made. Maybe this is just a US thing, don't know.

Re:Unthinkable just 25 years ago

[Firethorn]

In this case, I figure that the creator was going for serious SciFi, not just a mcguffin to make the story interesting. You just have to remember that even the most expert SciFi writer isn't going to be 100% of on the science of his day - much less how it'll play out in the future.

Wikipedia placed the publish date of "The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton" in 1976, The first successful kidney transplant was in 1954(for identical twins, so no rejection)and the first human heart & liver transplants were in 1967.

So, at the time the story was written - humanity seemed to be on a steady march towards being able to transplant more and more organs. Cloning hadn't made the news yet. Stem cells were hardly known to the public.

So I could see an author, in 1976, positing that eventually our desire for replacement organs might warp society a bit. The usage of convicts sentenced to death for this would be the mcguffin, as would the expansion of death penalty cases.

Meanwhile, 30 years later we're getting close to being able to clone (just)organs, we've discovered making computers fast and small is easier than large and smart, we have NOT conquered the human mind, space, or the sea like the writers of the '50s thought.

At least we aren't quite as screwed up as the author of 'soylent green' would have you believe.

Re:Interesting engineering opportunities

[Rich0]

I dunno - you're thinking about haves and have-nots in terms of cash. But I'm thinking in terms of genetics. Why should some girls be "prettier" than others, and some guys able to run faster, think smarter, play piano better, or be born without what we'd consider "mental defects"? This way in theory anybody could participate in the Tour de France, or marry an old rich guy.

In any case, I think its inevitable - so there is not much point in arguing about it. Everybody uses their strengths to make up for their weaknesses. The fact that humans are much better in brains than just about anything else just means that the brains will figure out a way to make up for the rest.

What's the difference between having a few extra heart chambers vs wearing eyeglasses or a hearing aid?

Re:Unthinkable just 25 years ago

[cnettel]

I really don't see the conflict between serious science fiction and some degree of artistic license. The point is that the scenario should seem conceivable, "this is one possible future development". It doesn't have to be the one that the author her/himself deems the very most likely. After all, if every story written was part of the author's personal ML estimate optimum of the future at the point of writing, one would either run into a complete inability to write any coherent works (the prediction would continuously change), or lock it at one point in time and then go on writing about the same stuff.

To say that Niven predicted that synthetical organs wouldn't be possible for hundreds of years is like saying that Clarke predicted that a 1:4:9 monolith should have been found on the moon about ten years ago, and that the creats of that monolith should have seeded human intelligence. Despite those aspects, both authors try to give a somewhat "realistic" view of a possible future, but that doesn't change the fact that some aspects are chosen more for the benefit of the story or to explore an interesting issue, rather than for the purpose of prediction.

Re:Unthinkable just 25 years ago

[ppanon]

Well, Niven's government ordered organ collection stories may not have been too far off either if Falun Dafa practitioners are to be believed [www.cbc.ca]. There's been ongoing rumours of organlegging in Asia for a while, and even the UK is being more aggressive about organ collection [bbc.co.uk].

The advantage of using your own stem cells instead of parts of some poor sap cut up for his crimes or beliefs, is that the former should be less subject to rejection. Assuming they ever get this approach viable for use in humans. I'm hoping so because, as the population becomes an increasingly aged one in Western countries, the pressure on organ banks is going to increase. And as the population becomes increasingly obese, the supply of healthy candidates for organ donations is only going to decrease.

Oh well, it could be worse. Transplants could have been available back when people thought debtor's prison was a good idea.

Re:Big Step

[nsaneinside]

improving longevity ... is a noble goal in science.

Is it? I'm not so sure. True, there are few who wish to die, and advancing technology in the medical world allows us to delay death for some amount of time. Isn't that selfish, though, in a world where resources are at a premium, and hundreds of thousands die each year of malnutrition?

How much are we willing to put into saving a single life, when the same resources could be used to save a hundred?

0ppr07un1ty 0f a l1fetime

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Re:Are you sure about that?

[Nazlfrag]

Weightlifting is a sport. Bodybuilding is a fetish.