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Article: A heart breakthrough to beat Barnard's; It's almost science fiction, but researchers have found that stem cells can be extracted from ordinary skin cells and may be used to regenerate heart tissue.(News)
- Article from:
- The Star (South Africa)
- Article date:
- December 6, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Independent News & Media PLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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BYLINE: Kanina Foss
On December 3 1967, in the middle of the afternoon, Christiaan Barnard entered the Groote Schuur surgical theatre. When he emerged, at 3am the next morning, he'd become a hero - the first man to successfully perform a human-to-human heart transplant.
Forty years later, cardiovascular science has had another extraordinary breakthrough. It's been discovered that stem cells can be extracted from ordinary skin cells. These stem cells - which have the ability to develop into many different cell types - can then be used to regenerate damaged tissue. The possibilities are huge, especially for the human heart.
Heart tissue doesn't ...