When the artificial heart will become a reality?

Professor of Medicine, Dr. Doping tells about problems, prospects and growing cost of heart and other organs (a specialist in tissue engineering of heart, talks about the current state and prospects of artificial tissues and organs.)

Today, there are several serious problems with the creation of complex structured multicellular body.
One of the main objectives is to obtain three-dimensional fabric of the heart wall thickness in the finger or two. Thickness depends on whether it is the wall of ventricle and the ventricle is, right or left. Receive cell monolayers and grow tissues such we can. The problem is that at the same time to grow muscle tissue and bloodstream, through which this muscle tissue is supplied with oxygen and nutrients and metabolic products will be displayed. Without vascular bed, without an adequate supply of cells in a thick layer, of course, be lost. The thin layer may be fed through the diffusion of nutrients and oxygen, and the diffusion layer has thick enough and deep layers of the cells will die. Now we can do about the three layers of the cardiac cells, which are able to survive. Meldonium, Riboxin are ideal for heart tissue.

This is the main fundamental problem to be solved first. When you can begin to address these.
For example, speaking of prospective implant, it must be remembered that the vascular bed of the implant would need to be connected to the bloodstream, which is already available in another part of the recipient's heart. That is, the need to grow the bloodstream certain anatomy.

Cultivation of a heart with a lot of its parts, cells and conducting its own system - this is a very complex multicellular task. A replica of the human heart can be obtained in about 7-10 years in well-equipped laboratories in developed countries.

With regard to the heart wall, then, deciding vascularization problem, implants, fit testing, will be available in 2-3 years.
Today in the United States is relatively simple coronary bypass surgery costs between 30 to 50 thousand. Dollars depending on the clinic and the complexity of the case. In this operation, only open the chest, heart, put a shunt (bypass) to the damaged artery atherosclerosis. Now imagine that you want to sew on the heart wall a piece that previously needed to grow. When these treatments are already developed, the cost can reach $ 500 thousands US Dollars.

In 7-10 years, this problem will be in one form or another basically solved. And here it is worth saying that it can be solved by a non-trivial way. The fact that the main task of the heart - pumping. Heart - this is not a gland that produces hormones, this pump. We need to get the blood pumped and do not injure when pumping.
Injury to the blood - this is just a problem of external pumps that are used in heart surgery. When they are only developed, the main difficulty was that the red blood cells and other blood components of these pumps were damaged.
Modern development of materials can lead to what is created a mechanical heart, which can be hemmed to it calmly performed the functions of the biological heart, which gives human nature. It simply pump the polymer made from biocompatible materials. Even today, there are examples of the auxiliary pump installations for the ventricle, usually the left, since it was he who drives the blood through a large circle.

In the long term 5-10 years, it will become clear whether or not to spend time and energy on something to grow a new heart, and it will be easier to put a man mechanical heart.
If the whole talk about the imported systems, the heart is not the most convenient object. It makes more sense to promote experiments on hepatic or renal tissues. For example, liver strips easily survive on their own and are relatively easy to grow. Give the man who struck the liver cirrhosis, a new part of the liver, which could begin to regenerate and grow on its own - it is much more reasonable application of forces.