This is flippin’ amazing!!! I know it is in its very beginning stages and it is just rats in the lab, but still… Researchers say they have brought dead hearts back to life. That is right, they began beating again right in the laboratory. This discovery may one day lead to customized organ transplants for people!!!
Taylor and colleagues used a process called decellularization to wash away existing cells from the hearts of dead rats while leaving the basic collagen structure intact. They injected this gelatin-like scaffold with heart cells from newborn rats, fed them a nutrient-rich solution and left …read more

A new type of treatment for cardiac fibrosis is on the horizon. Fibrosis occurs when an excess amount of matrix proteins, like collagen, develops and leaves pathological scarring. The heart becomes “stiff”. With inflexibility, the heart can not work properly, ie. it can not flex and relax.
Cardiac disease is the leading cause of death in the “Western world”. And with heart disease being so prevalent, too many patients deal with cardiac fibrosis on a daily basis.
The National Institutes of Health and the Novartis Corp. have funded an animal study that may lead to a possible treatment…
The …read more

Stroke caused by disease of the small blood vessels are more difficult to treat and diagnose than those caused by problems in the large arteries that supply the brain with blood. Visit my other blog, Genetics and Health, to learn more about how the collagen IV α1 gene may be involved.