Researchers at the University Medical Centre Utrecht and the Hubrecht Laboratorium have grown heart muscle cells from the stem cells of an adult human heart, reports this week’s Stem Cell Research magazine.

It means heart patients whose general health does not allow them to have a transplant may be able to have their heart repaired.
The cells are grown in the laboratory from material acquired during open heart surgery.
‘It is fantastic that these cells survive and is an enormous breakthrough,’ says professor Pieter Doevenans in the magazine, adding that the cells will now be tested on pigs’ hearts.