Technologies Seen in Osaka Expo Increasingly Put into Practice

Tokyo, Oct. 19 (Jiji Press)--Technologies showcased at the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka, western Japan, are seeing growing practical applications, including a sheet of heart muscle cells made from induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells.

"This would resolve a hopeless situation," Kazuyoshi Hirao, executive vice president of Cuorips Inc., a startup originating from the University of Osaka, said of the company's iPS cell-based sheet, RiHeart.

Patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy, in which clogged blood vessels prevent the heart muscle from functioning properly, need to receive a heart transplant when the condition becomes serious. In many cases, they need to wait for over five years before receiving a transplant.

But if three RiHeart sheets are attached to a heart, some 100 million cardiomyocytes promote blood vessel recovery, helping improve the heart's function.

In September, RiHeart was implanted into a patient at an Osaka hospital, becoming the world's first iPS-originated medical product used in a surgery. This attracted attention from foreign countries including Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]