{"id":336901,"date":"2017-03-28T00:57:51","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T16:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1469282"},"modified":"2017-03-28T00:57:51","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T16:57:51","slug":"researchers-make-a-spinach-leaf-pump-like-a-human-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/researchers-make-a-spinach-leaf-pump-like-a-human-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers make a spinach leaf pump like a human heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Just when you thought it was safe to eat a salad researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute<\/a> have shown that a decellularized spinach leaf can be turned into a vascular network that could help doctors regrow organs. The project, featured in the journal Biomaterials<\/a>, is about as proof-of-concept as you can get, but the primary value is proving that a previously existing vascular system can stand in for other systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cCellulose is biocompatible [and] has been used in a wide variety of regenerative medicine applications, such as cartilage tissue engineering, bone tissue engineering, and wound healing,\u201d the researchers wrote.<\/p>\n

This means you could use something like this spinach leaf as an overlay or scaffold for delicate bodily tissues. A leaf like this could deliver oxygen to damaged heart tissue, ensuring the new organ or regrown tissue doesn\u2019t die after implantation. Also these pumping leaves would make for a heck of a chef\u2019s salad.<\/p>\n