Biological Pacemaker: Heart cells beat to the pulsing of blue light
Genetically modified cells that respond to light can be used to stimulate heart tissue to beat, new research reveals.
A light-powered pacemaker would use less power than an artificial one requiring electricity. It’ll likely be more precise too. Technology Review reports.
The field of optogenetics – combining genetic manipulation with simple beams of light – has allowed scientists to control brain cells, altering brain activity and even behavior. This normally involves genetically engineering cells with light-sensitive proteins that can be activated with, well, light.
Now, light-sensitive cells could become the conductor of the heart’s rhythm, creating a biological pacemaker constructed from the patient’s own cells.
Biological pacemakers usually incorporate cells that are genetically engineered to beat spontaneously in a specified manner. Normally, in order to beat synchronously, heart muscle cells run a tight communication scheme; they’re coupled to one another through cell junctions.
So Emilia Entcheva and from Stony Brook University colleagues figured it should be possible to inject a small cluster of light-sensitive cells into normal tissue, allowing those cells to couple with, and orchestrate, the beating of the surrounding tissue.
- They created light-sensitive cells and paired them with heart cells.
- When stimulated by low-energy blue light, this hybrid cell cluster contracted in waves that matched the electrical pulses.
One day, it might be possible to harvest cells from a patient and genetically alter them to respond to light. Then, by injecting enough of these modified cells, the entire heart can be paced by light.
This would give us “unprecedented” resolution, which would make it possible to target specific parts of the heart.
And! Light would use less power than electricity. It’ll probably be delivered through thin fiber-optic cables.
Current methods for probing the workings of heart cells to test for cardiac side effects of drugs rely on stimulating cells with electrodes. According to Entcheva, light would allow more efficient screening.
The study was published in Circulation: Arrhythmia & Electrophysiology last week.
Image by mantasmagorical via morgueFile
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com