Two hearts beating as one move researchers a step closer to cardiac patches

In Russia, researchers demonstrated that two hearts can in fact beat as one, by taking two different rat tissues and combining them with mouse tissue to then transmit excitation waves from one tissue to the other. After some genetic engineering, the result was an electrode caused the electrical signal to sync within both tissues. Researchers hope this means that cardiac patches and implants can in fact be used in regenerative medicine to heal human hearts using different tissues. Some challenges remain such as partial blocking of the electrical signals at certain frequencies and researchers wonder whether that would increase the risk of arrhythmia.