Soon,human heart cells that can be paced with light

“In a real heart,the pacemaking cells are on the top of the heart and the contraction radiates down and around the heart,” said Ellen Kuhl,PhD,the study’s senior author.

“With these models we can demonstrate not only that pacing cells with light will work,but also where to best inject cells to produce the optimal contraction pattern,” she said.

Someday,the researchers say,there might be a pacemaker placed inside the heart chambers,as with traditional pacemakers,whose light can travel through the intervening blood to pace light-sensitive heart cells implanted inside.

“And,because the new heart cells are created from the host’s own stem cells,they would be a perfect genetic match,” said lead author of the study Oscar Abilez.

“In principle,tissue rejection wouldn’t be an issue,” he said.

The study was recently published in the Biophysical Journal.