--- title: Spinach Leaf Heart: Researchers Turn Vegetable Into Tissue description: A team of scientists has transformed spinach leaves into beating heart tissue, and it may be a way to solve the lack of organ donors. canonical: https://time.com/4713700/spinach-leaf-heart-tissue/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-27T14:26:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T08:26:08.146Z article:section: Science og:title: Researchers Turn Spinach Leaf into Beating Heart Tissue og:description: “All of a sudden you see cells moving.” og:url: https://time.com/4713700/spinach-leaf-heart-tissue/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt367efe49c0b467ce/6988bff686f68e16a46e3fe3/spinach-heart-tissue.jpg?branch=production&width=622&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 622 og:image:height: 350 og:image:alt: Spinach heart tissue og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Researchers Turn Spinach Leaf into Beating Heart Tissue twitter:description: “All of a sudden you see cells moving.” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt367efe49c0b467ce/6988bff686f68e16a46e3fe3/spinach-heart-tissue.jpg?branch=production&width=622&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Researchers Turn Spinach Leaf into Beating Heart Tissue > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=f7b280dc-d96b-4f15-a59f-e396feb45e81&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Researchers Have Turned Spinach into Beating Heart Tissue [Watch (HLS stream): Researchers Have Turned Spinach into Beating Heart Tissue](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/F8WUGzGi.m3u8) (2:59)  _Published 2017-03-27. A team of scientists has transformed spinach into heart tissue with beating cells after drawing inspiration during their lunch_  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Mar 27, 2017 2:26 PM UTC A team of scientists has transformed spinach into heart tissue with beating cells after drawing inspiration during their lunch  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Mar 27, 2017 2:26 PM UTC A team of scientists [has transformed spinach leaves into beating human heart tissue](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/27/scientists-convert-spinach-leaves-into-human-heart-tissue-that-beats/) after first coming up with the idea during their lunch. The researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts wanted to engineer a solution for widespread organ donor shortage. Knowing it’s difficult to reproduce veins, the group decided to use the system already in place on a spinach leaf by replacing spinach cells with human heart cells, the Washington _Post_ [reports](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/27/scientists-convert-spinach-leaves-into-human-heart-tissue-that-beats/?utm%5Fterm=.9a7fd2e030b6). “To be able to just take something as simple as a spinach leaf, which is an abundant plant, and actually turn that into a tissue that has the potential for blood to flow through it, is really very very exciting,” said researcher Glenn Gaudette, the head of the WPI lab, in a video about the work. The team published its initial findings in the journal [_Biomaterials_](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142961217300856)_._ Once engineers [used soap](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/27/scientists-convert-spinach-leaves-into-human-heart-tissue-that-beats/) to leave only the structural leaf supports, the report states, they replaced the spinach with the heart tissue that “colonized the inner surfaces of the plant vasculature.” After five days, the cells began to beat. “It was definitely a double take,” bioengineer Joshua Gershlak [told the ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/27/scientists-convert-spinach-leaves-into-human-heart-tissue-that-beats/)[_Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/27/scientists-convert-spinach-leaves-into-human-heart-tissue-that-beats/)_._ “All of a sudden you see cells moving.” The researchers injected the leaves with little beads the size of red blood cells to confirm that the spinach veins could transport materials. Gershlak told the _Post_ the researchers envision converting spinach to heart cells and grafting it onto damaged heart tissue in the future. Watch the researchers discuss their work in the video above. \[[_Washington Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/27/scientists-convert-spinach-leaves-into-human-heart-tissue-that-beats/)\] ## Transcript So we take spinach leaves and we perfuse them with a detergent that removes all the cellular material from the spinach leaf. What we're left with is the structure that keeps those cells in place and then we can see human cells on that structure. And so the idea here is we have this very Thin, flat piece of tissue that already has that vascular network in there, and so we should be able to potentially stack up multiple leaves and create a piece of cardiac tissue. The major limiting factor for tissue engineering or grafting and getting it to Being to the clinic is the lack of a vascular network. And so, techniques can't fabricate microvasculature the way that the body needs it. So without that microvasculature, you lose that oxygen transport and as you build a bigger and bigger graft for say, a heart attack in a human. You're going to need something fairly large. So, without that vascular network, you get a lot of tissue death. And so, our hope is we'll be able to use that vascular system in the spinach leaf to provide the cells that are grown on the leaf with nutrients and oxygen. And so, for use in cardiac applications Patients who have had heart attacks or myocardial infarctions, part of the heart no longer contracts. And so what we're trying to do is grow cardiac muscle on these leaves which then can be profuse with a blood source by the veins that are inside the leaf. And so we can in theory sew those veins. Into the native arteries in the heart, and therefore, produce a contractile muscle that can replace the infarcted, or the dead tissue, in the heart. In terms of trying to accelerate this towards building actual cardiac tissue, we just kinda started looking in to whether or not The cardiac cells will attach, and ultimately continue to contract on this spinach leaf, and they do. And they seem to stay contracted out for a long period of time. They look and act like normal cardiac cells when they're on there. So In terms of the small amount that we've been working with, it seems to be [ UNKNOWN ] very promising. We really believe that this scaffold has the capability to help treat the patients. It's still a long ways away, but to think about combining the technology that farmers have been using for thousands of years and growing Different crops in the field to be able to just take something as simple as a spinach leaf, which is an abundant plant and actually turn that into a tissue that has the potential for blood to flow through it is really very, very exciting. 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