Genetic Heart Engineering

Generic Heart Engineering:

One problem in the medical field is the rate of heart transplants compared with the number of them needed. The disparity is too great for the medical community and needs to be solved. The biggest contributor to this predicament is the fact that hearts must be taken from recently deceased people and cannot be taken from living, willing donors because that would basically be suicide. Also, another problem with heart transplants is, after the statistical miracle of receiving a new heart, the foreign tissue could be rejected by one's own immune system. In addition to this, the recipient must take a gamut of medications to combat this effect. So how could each of these problems be eradicated in one foul swoop? This could all be solved with the bioengineering of a generic heart.

First the term "bioengineering" must be defined. In my sense, this word means the manipulation of biology to yield good to man with the considerations of morals and ethics. With that in mind, I'm sure engineering a heart fits into this category because it: definitely has potential for human good; manipulates biology in a way that helps mankind; and is not beyond the ethics of today: none would stop the production of a beneficial product with the capability to save thousands of lives. Now that we have more insight into bioengineering, we can begin to discuss the engineering of a heart.

To engineer a heart, the pathways to its formation through stem cells must first be discovered through one genome line that is as healthy as possible (i.e. no signs of an genetic disorders, especially related to oncogenes, no family history of heart problems). Then a process could be made to grow a heart in vitro through the use of the right cell signaling, transcription factors and hormones. After this process is perfected, the genome could be screened again for any deleterious mutations that may have formed during this learning process. If any are to be found, then they could be excised through some method involving highly specific endonuclease (restriction factors) so only the specified site is affected. After this phase, the issue of foreign tissue rejection can be dealt with.

The issue that comes up with all transplanted tissues is foreign organ rejection. This problem arises from the body's specific immune system that can recognize "self" from "nonself." It does this through various immune system molecules like antibodies, macrophages, B-cells and T-cells. But each of these