Washington No batteries required: Scientists are creating a biological pacemaker by injecting a gene into the hearts of sick pigs that changed ordinary cardiac cells into a special kind that induces a steady heartbeat. The study, published Wednesday, is one step toward developing an alternative to electronic pacemakers that are implanted into 300,000 Americans a year. There are people who desperately need a pacemaker but cant get one safely, said Dr. Eduardo Marban, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, who led the work. This development heralds a new era of gene therapy that one day might offer them an option. Your heartbeat depends on a natural pacemaker, a small cluster of cells its about the size of a peppercorn, Marban says that generates electrical activity. Called the sinoatrial node, it acts like a metronome to keep the heart pulsing at 60 to 100 beats a minute or so, more when youre active. If that node quits working correctly, hooking the heart to an electronic pacemaker works very well for most people. But about 2 percent of recipients develop an infection that requires the pacemaker to be removed for weeks until antibiotics wipe out the germs, Marban said. … Continue reading →

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers have succeeded in turning ordinary cardiac muscle cells into specialized ones that deliver a steady heartbeat using a gene therapy procedure they predict could become an alternative to implanted electronic pacemakers. A study published on Wednesday involved pigs with a condition called heart block that makes their hearts beat too slowly. By injecting a human gene into a tiny region of the heart's pumping chambers roughly the size of a peppercorn, the researchers reprogrammed heart muscle cells into a type of cell that emits electrical impulses to drive the beating heart. In doing so, cardiologists at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles created "biological pacemaker" cells that restored a normal heart rate in the pigs. The procedure achieved the same result as implanting an electronic pacemaker that sends electrical pulses to the heart if it beats too slowly or skips a beat. "This development heralds a new era of gene therapy where genes are used not only to correct a deficiency disorder but actually to convert one type of cell into another to treat disease," Dr. Eduardo Marbn, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and leader of the research team, told reporters. The researchers noted that … Continue reading →