First demonstration of quantum teleportation over busy Internet cables

Advance opens door for lightning-fast quantum applications without specialized infrastructure

Northwestern University

Northwestern University engineers are the first to successfully demonstrate quantum teleportation over a fiberoptic cable already carrying Internet traffic.

The discovery introduces the new possibility of combining quantum communication with existing Internet cables — greatly simplifying the infrastructure required for distributed quantum sensing or computing applications.

The study will be published on Friday (Dec. 20) in the journal Optica.

“This is incredibly exciting because nobody thought it was possible,” said Northwestern’s Prem Kumar, who led the study. “Our work shows a path towards next-generation quantum and classical networks sharing a unified fiberoptic infrastructure. Basically, it opens the door to pushing quantum communications to the next level.”

An expert in quantum communication, Kumar is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering, where he directs the Center for Photonic Communication and Computing.

Only limited by the speed of light, quantum teleportation could make communications nearly instantaneous. The process works by harnessing quantum entanglement, a technique in which two particles are linked, regardless of the distance between them. Instead of particles physically traveling to deliver information, entangled particles exchange information over great distances — without physically carrying it.

“In optical communications, all signals are converted to light,” Kumar explained. “While conventional signals for classical communications typically comprise millions of particles of light, quantum information uses single photons.”

Before Kumar’s new study, conventional wisdom suggested that individual photons would drown in cables filled with the millions of light particles carrying classical communications. It would be like a flimsy bicycle trying to navigate through a crowded tunnel of speeding heavy-duty trucks.

Kumar and his team, however, found a way to help the delicate photons steer clear of the busy traffic. After conducting in-depth studies of how light scatters within fiberoptic cables, the researchers found a less crowded wavelength of light to place their photons. Then, they added special filters to reduce noise from regular Internet traffic.

“We carefully studied how light is scattered and placed our photons at a judicial point where that scattering mechanism is minimized,” Kumar said. “We found we could perform quantum communication without interference from the classical channels that are simultaneously present.”

To test the new method, Kumar and his team set up a 30 kilometer-long fiberoptic cable with a photon at either end. Then, they simultaneously sent quantum information and regular Internet traffic through it. Finally, they measured the quality of the quantum information at the receiving end while executing the teleportation protocol by making quantum measurements at the mid-point. The researchers found the quantum information was successfully transmitted — even with busy Internet traffic whizzing by.

Next, Kumar plans to extend the experiments over longer distances. He also plans to use two pairs of entangled photons — rather than one pair — to demonstrate entanglement swapping, another important milestone leading to distributed quantum applications. Finally, his team is exploring the possibility of carrying out experiments over real-world inground optical cables rather than on spools in the lab. But, even with more work to do, Kumar is optimistic.

“Quantum teleportation has the ability to provide quantum connectivity securely between geographically distant nodes,” Kumar said. “But many people have long assumed that nobody would build specialized infrastructure to send particles of light. If we choose the wavelengths properly, we won’t have to build new infrastructure. Classical communications and quantum communications can coexist.”

The study, “Quantum teleportation coexisting with classical communications in optical fiber,” was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (grant number DE-AC02-07CH11359).

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Journal

Optica

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Quantum teleportation coexisting with classical communications in optical fiber

Article Publication Date

20-Dec-2024

 

Pollinators most vulnerable to rising global temperatures are flies, study shows

Penn State

 

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Flies play a crucial role as pollinators, second only to bees in terms of the volume of crops and habitat they pollinate. Pictured here is a blue fly pollinating common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca).  

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Credit: Martha B. Moss/Penn State Extension Master Gardener / Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Despite their reputation as buzzing nuisances, flies serve a critical role as some of the Earth’s most prolific pollinators — and new research led by Penn State scientists suggests they are increasingly at risk due to rising global temperatures.

In a study recently published in the Journal of Melittology, an international team of researchers looked at the heat tolerance for a variety of species of bees and flies in tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. Their findings suggest that rising temperatures pose a greater threat to flies than bees, as bees can tolerate much higher temperatures than flies and have a wider habitat range.

“Bees and flies are essential for pollinating plants, both in the wild and in agriculture,” said Margarita López-Uribe, the Lorenzo Langstroth Early Career Associate Professor of Entomology at Penn State, extension specialist of pollinator health and lead author on the study. “However, these vital insects are declining due to habitat loss, pesticides, disease and the growing threat of climate change.”

Flies play a crucial role as pollinators, second only to bees in terms of the volume of crops and habitat they pollinate, López-Uribe explained. Flies are especially important for overall health and diversity of wild ecosystems, as they facilitate reproduction for countless plant species, which in turn provide food and habitat for other organisms. Flies are also increasingly contributing to agriculture. For example, flies are the primary pollinator for cocoa trees that produce the fruits used to make chocolate.

A 2020 analysis of global crops found that the 105 most widely planted crops that benefit from pollinator have greater than $800 billion gross economic value and include many of the most popular and nutritious fruit, vegetable and nut commodities consumed worldwide. The study also found that flies, specifically hoverflies and blowflies, consistently came right behind bees as a top pollinator.

“It’s time we gave flies some more recognition their role as pollinators,” López-Uribe said. “Flies have a significant role, but they don't get as much attention — and they are vulnerable in all the same ways that bees are.”

Insects are particularly susceptible to rising temperatures, as they have limited ability to regulate their own body temperatures, López-Uribe explained. To understand how different pollinator species might cope with rising global temperatures, the researchers studied the bees and flies’ "critical thermal maximum," or CTMax — the maximum temperature they can withstand before losing the ability to move.

The team found that bees can tolerate much higher temperatures than flies. On average, the CTMax for bees was 2.3 degrees Celsius higher than for flies. They also found that time of day affected the heat tolerance of bees. Bees foraging in the cooler morning hours had a higher CTMax than those active in the warmer afternoons. The study also revealed that geography plays a role in heat tolerance.

The team collected data throughout lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning international students on the project, from Penn State and other universities, conducted research in their home countries. López-Uribe explained that the challenge wound up being an asset, because students were able to collect data on bee and fly species throughout the Americas.

“We sent out all of the equipment to do the study to students throughout the U.S. and South America,” López-Uribe said. “These students were collecting the data in their houses, using their kitchens to understand the thermal ecology these insects could withstand. We effectively were able to provide an international research experience without being able to travel internationally.”

The research team found that flies and bees from high-elevation tropical areas like Cajicá, Colombia, had lower CTMax values than their counterparts in subtropical regions like California and Texas. This suggests that insects in cooler, high-altitude environments may be more vulnerable to even small temperature increases.

“In alpine and subarctic environments, flies are the primary pollinator,” López-Uribe said. “This study shows us that we have entire regions that could lose their primary pollinator as the climate warms, which could be catastrophic for those ecosystems.”

Other Penn State authors on the paper are Ruben Martín-Rojas, graduate student in the department of entomology; José Fuentes, professor of meteorology; Luis Duque, assistant research professor in storage root physiology. Other authors on the paper are Maren Appert of San Diego State University, Alonso Delgado of the University of Texas at El Paso, Abigail Jimenez of California State University, Victor Ramos of Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Andrés F. Herrera-Motta, Diego Riaño-Jimenez and José R. Cure of Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Bogotá, Colombia, and Victor Gonzalez of the University of Kansas.

The research was supported by a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation, which supported an International Research Experience for Students program.

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Journal

Journal of Melittology

DOI

10.17161/jom.vi122.22505 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Critical thermal maxima differ between groups of insect pollinators and their foraging times: Implications for their responses to climate change

 

Inequality weakens local governance and public satisfaction, study finds

By April Toler

University of Notre Dame

 

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Krister Andersson, professor of sustainable development at the Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame.

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Credit: University of Notre Dame

Local governments in developing countries are crucial for providing public services that promote human development and address challenges like extreme weather, unemployment and crumbling infrastructure. Yet, they often face difficulties in implementing cost-effective programs that meet citizens’ diverse needs, particularly in areas with significant socioeconomic inequalities.

A recent study, published in World Development and led by University of Notre Dame researcher Krister Andersson, explored the impact of economic and social inequalities on local government performance in Chile (a country with very high socioeconomic inequalities). Specifically, the paper assessed the effectiveness of external policies to alleviate the negative effects of inequality on the quality of local public services.

The study found that socioeconomic inequalities pose significant challenges for local governance, often trapping local governments in a cycle of limited resources, rising inequality and declining capacity to meet citizens’ needs.

“Interventions to help local governments to deal with inequality seem to be most effective when they recognize a leadership role and some autonomy of local leaders,” said Andersson, a professor of sustainable development at Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs.

Using a dataset spanning 56 local government territories in Chile from 2000 to 2014, the study analyzed citizen satisfaction with local government performance. Multilevel modeling was used to assess how different policy approaches — top-down, sector-based support and bottom-up, demand-driven funding — influence satisfaction levels.

The study evaluated four prominent national programs designed to address inequalities and citizen dissatisfaction. It found only one program to be effective, while the other three either had no impact or worsened the negative link between inequality and quality of local government services.

As socioeconomic disparities widened, the study found that citizen satisfaction with local government programs declined significantly. Poorer territories experienced greater dissatisfaction while wealthier citizens were less affected, as they relied less on government services for daily needs.

Extreme socioeconomic inequalities also constrained local governments’ ability to deliver effective services. Limited resources, inadequate personnel and insufficient infrastructure hindered their capacity to address diverse community needs. Despite significant investments by the Chilean national government to improve infrastructure and public services, many initiatives failed to bridge the gap.

The study, Andersson said, highlights the necessity of strategic, targeted interventions to break the cycle of inequality and enhance public satisfaction with local governance.

“These findings underscore the challenge faced by national governments trying to address inequalities. Simply increasing earmarked funding to local governments may not be sufficient. We see the importance of carefully designed policies and strengthened local governance structures to improve service delivery and address persistent socioeconomic inequalities,” he said.

The research was supported by grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development in Chile.

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Journal

World Development

DOI

10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106855 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Inequality and its strain on local Governments: Do external interventions Help?

Article Publication Date

20-Dec-2024

Neutrality has played a pivotal, but under-examined, role in international relations, new research shows

 News Release 20-Dec-2024

Heriot-Watt University

 

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Dr David Dekker is a Research Fellow at Edinburgh Business School, part of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Dr Dekker is an expert in social network theory, a science which merges mathematics and sociology.

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Credit: Heriot-Watt University

Researchers have developed a new way of understanding international relations by analysing almost 200 years of alliances, hostilities and neutrality between countries.

The research team, led by Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, concludes that neutrality has played a far greater role in global stability than previously thought – but has been under-explored and often mislabelled.

The study analysed 192 years of data between 1816 and 2007 from the Correlates of War (CoW) project, which collects and shares data on international relations.

Lead author Dr David Dekker, a Research Fellow at Edinburgh Business School, explained: “Our findings show that that neutral ties were more prevalent over a long period than alliances and hostilities, and played a pivotal, but previously unquantified role, in international stability.”

Neutrality has largely been ignored or under-analysed in previous research, which has tended to categorise international relations as either positive or negative. Within this binary system, neutrality is often incorrectly categorised as negative or ignored, which is even more problematic. For example, if your friend has an alliance with one of your enemies, it can put huge stress on the relationship with your friend – and be a source of conflict.

“In other words, international relations aren’t just black and white, they’re multi-layered.”

By introducing neutrality as a third category in their analysis, alongside positive and negative international relations, the team identified 26 new types of relation groupings between countries.  They define this new, more granular, measure of relational structure as "balance correlations" – and argue that this new way of exploring relationships between countries – and other parts of society – has profound implications for policymakers.

“Policymakers can benefit from this because we’ve been able to quantify types of behaviour and that were not identified before,” Dr Dekker said. “As well as helping us understand the dynamics between countries, it’s an approach that could be used, for example, to develop strategies for supply chains or to build stable learning environments in schools by understanding the relationships between students.”

The study, titled ‘Balance Correlations, Agentic Zeros, and Networks: The Structure of 192 Years of War and Peace,’ has been published in the journal, PLOS ONE. The co-authors of the research are David Krackhardt from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in the United States; Patrick Doreian from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia and Pavel N. Krivitsky from the University of New South Wales in Australia.

The researchers also found that neutrality can have dramatic effects on the formation and dissolution of social ties. It can lead to more conflict in periods when this behaviour is adopted widely. For example, they identify the 69 years between 1867 and 1936 as a particularly turbulent period when ‘neutrality behaviour’ dominated.

“If a country chooses to be neutral to another country, that can really tip the balance in the whole system,” Dr Dekker explained. “And we saw that during this turbulent period, which included World War I and all kinds of other disputes around the world. It’s only after the Second World War that we see a much more stable pattern arising again.”

The study extends a theory of interpersonal relations, called balance theory, which was developed during World War II by Austrian psychologist Fritz Heider.

By analysing groupings of three people, countries, or other actors, this theory for example predicts that 'a friend of a friend is a friend.' Other predicted relationship groupings include ‘a friend of an enemy is an enemy’ and ‘the enemy of a friend is an enemy.’ All of these have different impacts on the balance of sentiment in a three-party relationship.

Dr Dekker is an expert in social network theory, a science which merges mathematics and sociology. Originally from The Netherlands, he has a PhD from Erasmus University Rotterdam and, alongside his academic work, advises businesses on green investments. 

Edinburgh Business School is one of the world's largest providers of postgraduate business education, with 49,000 alumni across 158 countries.

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Journal

PLOS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0315088 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Article Title

Balance Correlations, Agentic Zeros, and Networks: The Structure of 192 Years of War and Peace

Article Publication Date

20-Dec-2024

 

Study reveals right whales live 130 years — or more

University of Alaska Fairbanks

 

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Southern right whales, like this mother and calf, can live for 130 years or more – almost twice as long as previously understood.

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Credit: Photo by Els Vermeulen

New research published in Science Advances reveals that right whales can survive for more than 130 years — almost twice as long as previously understood.

Extreme longevity is a trait common to the right whales’ cousins, the bowheads. 

Scientists working with Indigenous subsistence hunters in Utqiaġvik used chemical analysis of harvested bowhead whales to show they can live more than 200 years. Corroborating the chemical evidence, hunters have recovered 19th-century harpoon tips from bowheads taken in modern hunts.

Right whales, which are much more closely related to bowhead whales than any other species, appear to exhibit similar lifespans. Like bowheads, right whales filter feed through baleen and migrate seasonally to give birth. Whalers considered them the “right” whales to hunt due to their thick blubber, which caused them to float when killed.

The current study examined four decades of data collected by photo identification programs tracking individual whales from two species: the Southern right whale, which lives in the oceans south of the equator, and the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, found along the Atlantic coast of North America. Researchers used the data to construct survivorship curves — graphs that show the proportion of a population that survives to each age — similar to those used by insurance companies to calculate human life expectancies.

Analysis revealed that Southern right whales, once thought to live only 70 to 80 years, can exceed lifespans of 130 years, with some individuals possibly reaching 150 years. In contrast, the study found the average lifespan of the North Atlantic right whale is just 22 years, with very few individuals surviving past the age of 50. 

According to University of Alaska Fairbanks associate professor Greg Breed, the stark contrast in lifespans between these two closely related species is primarily due to human impacts. Breed is the study’s lead author.

“North Atlantic whales have unusually short lifespans compared to other whales, but this isn’t because of intrinsic differences in biology, and they should live much longer,” he said. “They’re frequently tangled in fishing gear or struck by ships, and they suffer from starvation, potentially linked to environmental changes we don’t fully understand.”

Breed has spent years studying marine mammals, including seals, certain species of which can live up to 50 years, and narwhals, with lifespans of a century or more. He noted that a lack of data on whale aging led to significant underestimations of their lifespans in the past.

“We didn’t know how to age baleen whales until 1955, which was the very end of industrial whaling,” Breed said. “By the time we figured it out, there weren’t many old whales left to study. So we just assumed they didn’t live that long.”

The study has important implications for conservation efforts. “To attain healthy populations that include old animals, recovery might take hundreds of years,” Breed said. “For animals that live to be 100 or 150 and only give birth to a surviving calf every 10 years or so, slow recovery is to be expected.”

The study also underscores the importance of cultural knowledge among whale populations. 

“There’s a growing recognition that recovery isn’t just about biomass or the number of individuals. It’s about the knowledge these animals pass along to the next generation,” Breed said. 

“That knowledge isn’t just genetic — it’s cultural and behavioral. Older individuals teach survival skills. Younger animals learn by observing and copying the strategies of the older ones.” 

The loss of older individuals disrupts this critical transfer of knowledge and can impair the survival of the young.

Breed and his colleagues intend to extend their research to other whale populations and predict whether other whale species currently thought to live around 80 years may also have much longer lifespans. They hope to learn more about how whaling affected the number of old individuals in current whale populations and predict when their numbers will recover to pre-whaling levels.

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Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adq3086 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Extreme longevity may be the rule not the exception in Balaenid whales First Author

Article Publication Date

20-Dec-2024

 

How everyday activities inside your home can generate energy

Could turning a doorknob power your kitchen light? Researchers are exploring new ways to harvest and adapt energy

Texas A&M University

 

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Texas A&M University Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Dr. Jeeeun Kim

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Credit: Texas A&M Engineering

Passive interfaces, such as light switches or doorknobs, refer to hardware that can store energy, but the energy can only be used for the purpose it was intended. However, research is imagining new ways for that energy to be harvested and adapted — turning your doorknob could power your alarm system or opening your freezer could turn on your kitchen light.  

By integrating smart capabilities such as sensing and energy harvesting, Dr. Jeeeun Kim is transforming passive interfaces into adaptive interfaces, altering hardware to be used in non-traditional ways. These interfaces will assist people with disabilities, automate domestic tasks, and power millions of computers. 

Kim, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, is a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, which will support this research.   

“Daily design issues are hard to attend if prior experiences are used as a baseline,” said Kim. “Even to those with known personal goals, like reducing utility bills, adopting the latest scientific advances in real life demands expertise because tools to support end-users, like you and me, are lacking.”

3D-Printed Augmentations

The project will aim to increase user awareness about daily computational challenges and redesign opportunities using 3D-printed augmentations. One example of augmentations is adding an attachment to a window slide or a refrigerator’s door hinges and then that converts the energy created from sliding the window or opening the fridge door into energy to be used in new ways. For example, with augmentation a doorknob rotation could power an intruder alarm or opening a refrigerator could power the fridge’s inventory display.

This research will build on new methods to capture interaction properties, which are highly conceptual, as well as critical fabrication parameters for complex augmentations that are efficient and accurate. This will allow users to have access to smart augmentations at minimal cost.

“Unfortunately, recent advances in AI research of today only focuses on object, instance level detection from millions of images and videos such as a toilet, microwave, not the human interactions, lifting a toilet lid and tapping on microwave’s button panels, where all human-centered computing challenges actually occur,” Kim said.

To accomplish this task, Kim has developed a new framework for creating a large-scale dataset that helps describe human interactions with daily objects, fine-grained parts and their interaction properties. Kim also developed an end-to-end software system for lay persons to aim their smartphone camera toward their indoor environment to scan for hidden accessibility barriers and overlay detected information on the Augmented Reality (AR) views.

Awareness Of Wasted Energy

Kim hopes this tool will help promote pro-social behaviors, assisting people to be aware of accessibility and design opportunities that are abundant but overlooked.  

“My research is not limited to accessibility solely,” said Kim. “I hope my toolkit for end-users can scan the multi-residential buildings and interactions at multiple dimensions, so residents also can notice how inaccessible their common physical environments are, how much energy is being wasted and how they can make changes toward smart, sustainable buildings by themselves.”  

While the complete replacement of these interfaces with smart devices is not feasible and may create e-wastes causing huge impact on the environments, augmentations promise cost-effective reconfiguration of daily interfaces. Kim hopes this research is a blueprint for altering physical interfaces in ways that make them more energy and cost effective, while also being easier to use. 

“By tackling multifaceted, interdisciplinary approaches across digital fabrication, end-user programming, deep learning, robotics, and design, this project lays the foundation for a future where every individual creates daily innovations in assistive computing devices, smart homes, and green buildings,” said Kim.

Funding for this research is administered by the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), the official research agency for Texas A&M Engineering.

By Michelle Revels, Texas A&M Engineering

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Can the heart heal itself? New study says it can

An international research team found evidence that heart muscle can regenerate after heart failure in some people with artificial hearts

University of Arizona Health Sciences

 

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Hesham Sadek, MD, PhD, is the director of the Sarver Heart Center and chief of the Division of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine at the U of A College of Medicine – Tucson.

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Credit: Photo by Kris Hanning, U of A Health Sciences Office of Communications

A research team co-led by a physician-scientist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson’s Sarver Heart Center found that a subset of artificial heart patients can regenerate heart muscle, which may open the door to new ways to treat and perhaps someday cure heart failure. The results were published in the journal Circulation.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart failure affects nearly 7 million U.S. adults and is responsible for 14% of deaths per year. There is no cure for heart failure, though medications can slow its progression. The only treatment for advanced heart failure, other than a transplant, is pump replacement through an artificial heart, called a left ventricular assist device, which can help the heart pump blood.

“Skeletal muscle has a significant ability to regenerate after injury. If you’re playing soccer and you tear a muscle, you need to rest it, and it heals,” said Hesham Sadek, MD, PhD, director of the Sarver Heart Center and chief of the Division of Cardiology at the U of A College of Medicine – Tucson’s Department of Medicine. “When a heart muscle is injured, it doesn’t grow back. We have nothing to reverse heart muscle loss.”

Sadek led a collaboration between international experts to investigate whether heart muscles can regenerate. The study was funded through a grant awarded to Sadek by the Leducq Foundation Transatlantic Networks of Excellence Program, which brings together American and European investigators to tackle big problems.

The project began with tissue from artificial heart patients provided by colleagues at the University of Utah Health and School of Medicine led by Stavros Drakos, MD, PhD, a pioneer in left ventricular assist device-mediated recovery.

Jonas Frisén, MD, PhD, and Olaf Bergmann, MD, PhD, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, led teams in Sweden and Germany and used their own innovative method of carbon dating human heart tissue to track whether these samples contained newly generated cells.

The investigators found that patients with artificial hearts regenerated muscle cells at more than six times the rate of healthy hearts.

“This is the strongest evidence we have, so far, that human heart muscle cells can actually regenerate, which really is exciting, because it solidifies the notion that there is an intrinsic capacity of the human heart to regenerate,” Sadek said. “It also strongly supports the hypothesis that the inability of the heart muscle to ‘rest’ is a major driver of the heart’s lost ability to regenerate shortly after birth. It may be possible to target the molecular pathways involved in cell division to enhance the heart’s ability to regenerate.”

Finding better ways to treat heart failure is a top priority for Sadek and the Sarver Heart Center. This study builds on Sadek’s prior research into rest and heart muscle regeneration.

In 2011, Sadek published a paper in Science showing that while heart muscle cells actively divide in utero, they stop dividing shortly after birth to devote their energy to pumping blood through the body nonstop, with no time for breaks.

In 2014, he published evidence of cell division in patients with artificial hearts, hinting that their heart muscle cells might have been regenerating.

These findings, combined with other research teams’ observations that a minority of artificial heart patients could have their devices removed after experiencing a reversal of symptoms, led him to wonder if the artificial heart provides cardiac muscles the equivalent of bedrest in a person recovering from a soccer injury.

“The pump pushes blood into the aorta, bypassing the heart,” he said. “The heart is essentially resting.”

Sadek’s previous studies indicated that this rest might be beneficial for the heart muscle cells, but he needed to design an experiment to determine whether patients with artificial hearts were actually regenerating muscles.

“Irrefutable evidence of heart muscle regeneration has never been shown before in humans,” he said. “This study provided direct evidence.”

Next, Sadek wants to figure out why only about 25% of patients are “responders” to artificial hearts, meaning that their cardiac muscle regenerates.

“It’s not clear why some patients respond and some don’t, but it’s very clear that the ones who respond have the ability to regenerate heart muscle,” he said. “The exciting part now is to determine how we can make everyone a responder, because if you can, you can essentially cure heart failure. The beauty of this is that a mechanical heart is not a therapy we hope to deliver to our patients in the future – these devices are tried and true, and we’ve been using them for years.”

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Journal

Circulation

DOI

10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.123.067156 

Method of Research

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

Subject of Research

Human tissue samples

Article Title

A Latent Cardiomyocyte Regeneration Potential in Human Heart Disease