A “wire” made from a patient’s own cells could one day be used to keep electrical impulses flowing in the heart. It may even mean people will no longer have to be fitted with pacemakers.
A normal heart has an efficient electrical circuit that sychronises the beats of the atria and ventricles – the chambers of the heart – so that they pump blood effectively. Impulses are produced by the heart’s natural pacemaker, a cluster of cells called the sino-atrial node, situated in the right atrium. These are then relayed to the ventricles via the atrioventricular (AV) node.
In some people the…
