The development of new drugs is not complete without tests. First, scientists offer them to animals, but the final consumer of medication is a person. But there is no longer a complete guarantee that the proposed medicine is harmless to the subject. It is important for experts to know what side effects are possible from taking the drug developed, what needs to be changed. The solution was found. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory recently introduced the “Heart on the Chip” in the Lawrence Livermore laboratory.
Experts learned to generate a fabric that performs the main functions of the main human organ – the heart, artificially. No one has achieved such success before them. The heart tissue grown in the Lawrence Laboratory makes it possible to measure the intensity of its contractions and the electrical signals passing in it. Samples that were created before could perform no more than one heart function.
Tissues were grown from cells of the human heart in laboratory conditions in 9 days. Researchers received the first results 2 days after the start of the experiment. The two -dimensional structure, which could already be reduced, received from cardiomyocytes, muscle cells of the heart. Further, experts studied how Norepinephrine acts on the heart, it is used in the treatment of heart failure and reduced blood pressure. Scientists recorded that the heart was more often reduced from the drug, frequent electrics signals. Under the influence of norepinephrine, a similar reaction is observed in the heart muscle.
The continuation of the experiments made it possible to achieve an amazing effect – the preservation of electrical impulses in the tissues, when the reduction itself ended. Previously, a similar effect on any artificial simulator was not possible to achieve. Thus, in the future, a new platform can partially refuse animal testing.
Source: PHYS.Org