By studying and manipulating heart tissue in the unique low-gravity environment of space, Dr. Arun Sharma’s lab is discovering new ways to protect and repair failing hearts. He was speaking today at the 46th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) in Toronto.
Dr. Sharma explained that space is a yin-yang environment that promotes tissue aging and degradation and provides an ideal environment for growing more complex three-dimensional heart tissue and patches from patient-specific stem cells.
Heart disease experiments conducted in space with rapid results
“In microgravity, the deterioration of cardiovascular conditions accelerates. The heart and muscles deteriorate much faster than on Earth,” said Dr. Sharma, director of the Cedars-Sinai Space Medicine Research Center in Los Angeles. “This allows us to study disease-like changes, such as reduced contractility or metabolic changes, over a period of weeks rather than years.”
Dr. Sharma’s projects include experiments on the International Space Station on the cellular mechanisms underlying heart failure and experiments using stem cells to create mini-heart organs.
“A better understanding of how myocardium malfunctions and recovers will also improve pre-transplant optimization, allowing patients to keep their hearts and other organs in better condition while waiting for a donor organ,” he said.
Low gravity can also be used to manufacture cardiac organoids and small 3D organs that simulate normal heart function. Cardiac organoids will be used to identify new drug targets aimed at slowing the progression of heart failure and improving post-transplant care by generating insights into how heart tissue adapts, remodels, or deconditions under stress.
Microgravity environment helps create powerful treatments
“Microgravity also improves the 3D structure and vascular network of engineered tissues,” he said. “Space-enhanced manufacturing could facilitate bioprinting of stronger and more physiological heart patches.”
Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived myocardial patches are designed to stabilize or partially repair failing hearts, buying time and reducing the number of patients who require complete organ replacement.
“iPSC patches are being produced here on Earth as a bridging therapy for patients with severe heart failure awaiting full heart transplants,” said Dr. Sharma. “The microgravity environment offers the possibility of producing thicker, sturdier patches that are less likely to collapse under gravity when brought back to Earth,” he said.
In the long term, space research will also enable more precise 3D organization of cells and extracellular matrices, which could lead to more durable or more physiological valves, ducts, and support structures, Dr. Sharma said.
“For transplant programs, this means longer duration of valve replacement or structural repair, fewer reoperations, and potentially delaying the need for full transplantation in some patients,” he said. “If we can harness microgravity to create larger, more vascularized 3D heart tissue, we may eventually be able to manipulate large portions of myocardium suitable for repairing large infarcts or replacing parts of failing transplanted hearts.”
Dr. Sharma’s lab’s research is part of a vision for on-demand generation of organs and tissues, such as iPSC-derived cardiac cells from specific genetic backgrounds and disease phenotypes.
ISHLT’s annual general meeting and academic sessions will be held from April 22 to 25 at the Metro Toronto Convention Center in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
sauce:
International Heart and Lung Transplant Society
