LUMC grows human heart muscle cells outside the body

The new technique was developed by applying an old trick; inserting a cancer gene into the DNA of heart muscle cells. The researchers, Twan de Vries and colleagues from the Heart Disease Department at the LUMC, hoped that this trick would lead to a strong multiplication of the cells. That expectation came true.

But, as it turned out, the cells lost their specific properties, such as the ability to contract, so they weren’t really heart muscle cells anymore. “Then I thought: what if we could turn off the cancer gene again?” says De Vries. That turned out to work. The first trial with this cancer gene that could be turned ‘on’ and ‘off’ was a great success.

Cardiac muscle cells for research

The mass cultivation of these cells outside the body offers many new possibilities for research into heart disease. And, just as important, it can reduce the use of laboratory animals. These are still widely used for research into atrial fibrillation. “The use of laboratory animals is socially charged, the care is expensive and the heart muscle cells of animals behave differently from human heart muscle cells in many respects,” explains De Vries.

These social and practical disadvantages were the drivers for the development of an alternative. The researchers would therefore prefer to use human heart muscle cells, but because these cells hardly multiplied in the body, let alone in a laboratory, they simply could not get enough cells for their research. Until now. With the technique developed by De Vries and his colleagues, the LUMC researchers now have an almost inexhaustible source of human heart muscle cells.

In the animation below, the researchers explain exactly why these human cells are so valuable and how they can reduce the use of laboratory animals.

Development of new medicines

This makes it possible to better research potential new drugs for heart disease. Especially because they can now be tested on real human cells. The new technique also enables the researchers to accurately determine which genes are responsible for the specific properties of heart muscle cells and for the multiplication of these cells. This will enable researchers in the future to understand much better how exactly heart muscle cells work and how heart diseases, such as atrial fibrillation, develop. This knowledge can also be used to develop new methods to repair damaged hearts.

Because the new method for culturing human heart muscle cells contributes to reducing the use of laboratory animals, the research was financed by Stichting Proefdiervrij.