Fight against heart diseases
Korean scientists used adult stem cells taken from human adipose or fat tissue and differentiated them into smooth muscle cells. They have transformed human stem cells into smooth muscle cells that control blood pressure and allow the normal functioning of organs.
The discovery could lead to a breakthrough in the treatment of arteriosclerosis, heart attacks and other cardiovascular conditions. This is expected to help biotechnologists who had been looking to mass produce smooth muscles found in the middle layers of arteries and veins, possibly resulting in new possibilities for the use of stem cells in tissue engineering and repairing. This could offer a great opportunity in bioengineering, as mass production of smooth muscle cells is crucial to the treatment of cardiovascular conditions which has not been possible so far.
“The cultivation of smooth muscle cells could also provide more clues as to the causes of heart-related diseases. And since the cells can be derived from the fat tissue of the patients themselves, we risk no ethical problems or problems related to the immune system.”
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