VATIS UPDATE Article

A team of scientists from Israel and Canada have developed a biological pacemaker that overcomes many of the limitations of electrical pacemakers by using human embryonic stem cells to create a type of cardiac cells known as sinotrial (SA) node pacemaker cells. The breakthrough findings could pave the way for an “assembly line” for an unlimited reservoir of pacemaker cells to treat patients with heart rhythm problems.

The research group included Professor Lior Gepstein of the Technion Faculty of Medicine, Israel, and Rambam Heath Care Campus, Israel. The study was led by Prof. Gordon M. Keller from the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine and also included collaboration with Dr. Peter Backx, at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, both from the University Health Network, Canada. The team used their knowledge to develop a differentiation protocol for the creation of pacemaker cells from human embryonic stem cells.

“The pacemaker generated from embryonic stem cells exhibits the molecular, electrical and functional properties characteristic of human pacemaker cells,” said Prof. Gepstein. To demonstrate the potential future clinical use of the cells as biological pacemakers, experiments were conducted in the Gepstein laboratory on rats. Pacemaker cell transplants restored normal heart rhythm in 6 of the 7 rats that were tested.