"Using SDS, a detergent that will be intimately familiar to anyone who has carried out a western blot, the scientists were able to decellularize the old rat hearts, leaving just the extracellular matrices, but no endothelial cells, cardiomyocytes, or other cell types one would expect to find in a normal heart.
Once this technique of decellularization was perfected, the next step was to repopulate the organ with new cells, obtained from newborn rat hearts. When the repopulated ECM was continuously perfused with a culture medium supplying nutrients and oxygen, the repopulated hearts showed spontaneous contractions on day four, and by day eight were able to pump."
Ars Technica
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