Human Heart Tissue Regeneration in Non-human Primates: A Breakthrough
Heart failure remains a significant global cause of mortality, characterized by the adult human heart's inability to repair itself or compensate for the loss of cardiac muscle cells. Cell therapy, specifically employing stem cells, has emerged as a promising avenue for restoring lost cardiac muscle cells and reviving heart function. Led by the esteemed Professor Patrick CH Hsieh at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica in Taiwan, a pioneering research team has achieved noteworthy breakthroughs in both murine and non-human primate models. Their groundbreaking work successfully restored and regenerated damaged hearts through the co-transplantation of human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived endothelial cells and cardiomyocytes. This groundbreaking study, entitled "Combined Treatment of Human iPSC-derived Cardiomyocytes and Endothelial Cells Regenerate the Infarcted Heart in Mice and Non-human Primates," was published in the prestigious journal "Circulation" on October 31, 2023, boasting an impressive Impact Factor (IF) of 39.9. The collaboration between the research team and esteemed scientists from both Taiwan and the United States, including Dr. Tim Kamp and Dr. Tim Hacker from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has ushered in a new era of possibilities in the field of cardiac regeneration.
A striking image, courtesy of Yu-Che Cheng, shows human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (green with red stripes, Z-lines) seamlessly integrating with host cardiomyocytes in a non-human primate heart (red stripes).
Combined Treatment of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes and Endothelial Cells Regenerate the Infarcted Heart in Mice and Non-Human Primates.
Cheng YC, Hsieh ML, Lin CJ, Chang CMC, Huang CY, Puntney R, Wu Moy A, Ting CY, Herr Chan DZ, Nicholson MW, Lin PJ, Chen HC, Kim GC, Zhang J, Coonen J, Basu P, Simmons HA, Liu YW, Hacker TA, Kamp TJ, Hsieh PCH.
Circulation. 2023 Oct 31;148(18):1395-1409. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.061736.
PMID: 37732466