Pre-IGERT fellow Joshua Gershlak and his research advisor Glenn Gaudette were recently co-authors on a high impact research article in the prestigious Circulation Research journal. The article, entitled “Bioengineering Human Myocardium on Native Extracellular Matrix”, was accomplished through collaboration with the Ott Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital. The Ott Lab is the world leader in pioneering whole organ decellularization as a potential clinical option for patients who need organ transplants. Decellularization is a technique that removes cells from organs, leaving behind just extracellular matrix. Once the cells are removed from the organ, patients own cells could be used to repopulate the “blank” scaffold which would leave a patient specific organ that should have no immunological responses. This could increase the number of available organs for transplant as well as improve the quality of life for receivers of the implants.
Within the article, the authors were the first to take decellularization and translate to work on the human scale with clinically relevant cells. The study was the first to combine human extracellular matrix with human induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes (iPS-CMs). iPS-CMs have the potential to be fully derived from the patient needing the implant. The study was done to show the feasibility of translating decellularization and recelluarization in a clinical study. Within the article, Gershlak and Gaudette performed mechanical analysis on the decellularized human tissue. Ultimately, this article will be important by accelerating this field forward and closer to the clinic.
