Sprinkling of gold dust used in radical new heart treatment

A PATCH that is sprinkled with gold dust and attached to the heart could be a radical new treatment for heart failure.

The experimental patch is designed to replace cardiac muscle that’s been destroyed by a heart attack.

It is made from tissue taken from pigs and stripped of all animal DNA so that the body’s immune system does not reject it.

The remaining “scaffold” is then grafted with a patient’s own “master cells” – stem cells – which grow into healthy new heart muscle in the damaged area.

Tiny gold particles are added because they help the new muscle conduct the electrical signals that keep the heart working properly.

Israeli scientists who are developing the patch chose gold over other metals because it is highly biocompatible – which means the body does not think it is a foreign substance and try to destroy it.

These patches contain cells that can then grow into new heart mus- cle, and replace what has been lost.

The team, based at Tel Aviv University, has taken the technology one step further by adding gold nanoparticles.

They did so after initial tests found new heart muscle failed to conduct electricity properly once implanted. The heart relies on the

transmission of elec- trical signals to keep it beating properly.

To see if gold would help, they took pieces of pig tissue and coated them with gold nanoparticles and stem cells.

Over time, the cells grew into new heart muscle that generated its own electrical impulses and expanded and contracted spontaneously – just as in a healthy heart.

The gold patches caused the heart to contract more forcefully than a heart repaired with stem cells alone – a sign that current was being conducted efficiently.

The research is still at an early stage but experts hope gold patches could be available for use in humans in the next five to 10 years.

Meanwhile, scientists are investig ating whether magnesium could boost heart health. Patients are taking daily supplements of the mineral or a placebo pill in a trial assessing its effects on artery stiffness.

Studies have reported that consuming more magnesium, which is found in foods such as spinach and almonds, may make arteries more flexible – stiff arteries are thought to increase the risk of heart disease.

In the new trial at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, 60 patients will take either magnesium or a placebo pill daily for six months. – Daily Mail