The Japan Times reports that Japanese scientists claim to have developed cardiac muscle tissue derived from the heart-muscle cells of newborn rats that they used to treat rats with poorly functioning hearts.
The researchers apparently cultivated cells from newborn rats and used them to, in the words of The Japan Times, “form a sheet of cardiac muscle.” The researchers then combined four of these sheets of muscles and transplanted it into a rat, causing a 40 percent improvement in heart functionality.
Unfortunately, at the moment the research does not appear to have been peer reviewed.
Source:
Rat experiment gives hope to the weak-hearted. The Japan Times, Thursday, April 11, 2002.