The research, led by Ravi K. Birla, Ph.D., of the Artificial Heart Laboratory in U-M's Section of Cardiac Surgery and the U-M Cardiovascular Center, created bio-engineered heart muscle (BEHM) cells that generated pulsing forces and reacted more like natural heart muscles than any BEHM previously produced.
The three-dimensional tissue was grown using a new technique that is faster than others that have been tried in recent years, but still yields tissue with significantly better properties. The approach uses a fibrin gel to support rat cardiac cells temporarily, before the fibrin breaks down as the cells organize into tissue.
