WPI team growing heart tissue on spinach

Courtesy/WPI An image showing human heart tissue growing on a spinach leaf, a project involving WPI researchers.

Write a Comment

By Grant Welker

A research team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute has grown heart tissue attached to spinach leaves, which researchers involved in the project said overcomes a key challenge in human tissue regeneration.

Bioengineering technology today, including 3-D printing, can't duplicate human tissue's network of blood vessels that are needed to delivery oxygen and nutrients needed for tissue growth, the researchers said in a paper to be published in the May issue of the journal Biomaterials.

"With all of that in mind, we looked for inspiration from the plant kingdom to address this challenge," they wrote in the study.

The WPI team included Glenn Gaudette, a professor of biomedical engineering at WPI and corresponding author of the paper; Tanja Dominko, an associate professor of biology and biotechnology, who studies molecular mechanisms of human cell development; Pamela Weathers, a professor of biology and biotechnology, and a plant biologist; and Marsha Rolle, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, who focuses on what's called vasculature tissue engineering.

Joshua Gershlak, a graduate student in Gaudette’s lab, who helped design and conduct the experiments, is one of the authors and will present the project at the National Academy of Inventors inaugural Student Innovation Showcase in Boston next month.

The WPI team was joined by others from the University of Wisconsin and Arkansas State University.

"Tissue engineering has made significant strides over the past decade through the development of tissue grafts, increasing the potential number of viable solutions for these patients," the researchers wrote in the Biomaterials piece. "However, there are still issues impeding their translation into the clinic."

The need is great, they said, with more than 100,000 patients on organ or tissue donation waiting lists, and an average of 22 people dying each day waiting for a donor.