In the first procedure of its kind, skin cells taken from patients suffering from heart failure were reprogrammed and changed into heart muscle cells. Not only were the transformed cells healthy, but they were also transplanted into the hearts of rats and were able to integrate with the existing heart tissue.

Published in the European Heart Journal, the research examined the use of human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to treat damaged hearts. HiPSCs are cells that are derived from other cells in a persons body.

We were able to show [in earlier studies] that you can take these hiPSCS from healthy heart patients and coax them into bonafide heart cells, lead author Lior Gepstein, professor of medicine (cardiology) and physiology at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, told FoxNews.com. The question we asked in this study was whether you can do the same from an elderly individual that had suffered from advance heart failure.

Because hiPSCs are derived from the person in need of the stem cells, they could potentially help to bypass the painful process of rejection that many transplant patients go through. According to Gepstein, if this process is perfected, it could lead to much more localized treatments.

When there is significant damage from a heart attack, or with heart failure, where the heart doesnt pump enough blood into circulation, patients usually need a heart transplant, Gepstein said. But perhaps in the future, we can take a small sample of skin and convert them into stem cells specific to that patient. Then we can only replace the area with scar tissue rather than replace the dying heart.

In order to transform the skin cells into hiPSCs, Gepstein and his colleagues gave them a reprogramming cocktail, which involved delivering three genes (Sox2, Klf4 and Oct4), followed by a small molecule called valproic acid, to the nucleus of the cell.

This process turned the skin cells into heart muscle cells, or cardiomyocytes, which the researchers were able to subsequently turn into heart muscle tissue by culturing them together with cardiac tissue.

We converted the cells back into a state that resembles their early state in the embryo, Gepstein said. So they highly resemble the patients cells at the time they were born. When you give them proper conditions, they can become any type of cell in the body.

This area of study has advanced very rapidly, Gepstein added. You can take almost any type of adult cells - hair follicles, blood cells, etc. - and reprogram them to make hiPSCS cells. Skin cells are the easiest way to do it, and you dont need a lot of them.

Once the tissue had formed, it was transplanted into the hearts of healthy rats, where it successfully grafted and integrated with the existing tissue.

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Scientists convert skin cells into full functioning heart cells

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