Finger-sized artificial heart developed at HKU  

港大造出全球首个人造心脏 5年内可望临床应用

缺乏器官捐赠，加上细胞疗法尚未成熟，令心脏病成为香港第三号杀手。由香港大学牵头的研究团队研究出数项专利技术，可以一个万能干细胞大量提炼出80个心肌细胞，5年内可望临床应用，帮助病人修复坏死的心肌细胞。团队更成功造出世上首个体积如手指头大小的人类人造心脏作药物测试，并已测试30至50种有毒性的药物，期望明年可测试3000以至更多种药物。[查看全文]

(ECNS) – A research team at the University of Hong Kong has succeeded in extracting 80 cardiac muscle cells from an embryonic stem cell, and developed the world's first finger-sized artificial heart, according to Ta Kung Pao.

Professor Li Ronald Adolphus, director of the university's research center on stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, said it may take five years before the cardiac muscle cells are put into clinical application, but the artificial heart has been used for testing toxic drugs.

The artificial heart cannot be transplanted to human beings yet, but it contains human cells and can be used to test whether a drug is toxic to the human heart, Li said.

"The team has tested about 30 to 50 kinds of toxic drugs with the heart, and we expect to test thousands of drugs with it next year."

The research focused on extracting heart muscle cells to help repair the dead cells in cardiac patients.

Heart disease is the No. 3 killer in Hong Kong.