Russian Federation has found a safe way to deliver pacemaker cells to the heart

Employees of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) in cooperation with scientists from ITMO have proposed an original technology for the delivery of cells capable of setting the heart rhythm. When administered by injection, these natural pacemakers (so-called pacesetters) can cause tissue damage and inflammation, and they are also very quickly eliminated from the body.

To solve these problems, they were placed on a special biopolymer porous film with an area of 1 square centimeter with a specific set of molecules. It was then firmly "glued" to the myocardium. The technology was successfully tested on an animal.

"During the operation, we sewed the patch onto the pig's heart and stimulated the pacemakers with light of a certain wavelength to control their excitation. After illumination, we were able to record the rhythm we imposed on the heart. The implantation of the cell patch itself took about half an hour - this is the time required for the formation of the primary connection between the heart tissue of the animal and the patch. Then they performed a light experiment to wake up the pacemaker cells and recorded the change in the rhythm of the pig's heart. The question of how long this activity will persist remains open and will be studied in the coming months," said Elena Turchaninova, an engineer at the MIPT Laboratory of Experimental and Cellular Medicine and a researcher at the ITMO Advanced Engineering School.

The pig with implanted cells will remain under constant observation, a special device will record its heart rhythm with high accuracy.

Read more in the exclusive material of Izvestia:

Substrate for salvation: the Russian Federation has learned to deliver stimulator cells to the heart