WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Researchers at the Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago have developed a breakthrough procedure to regenerate damaged heart muscle cells in mice, providing a glimpse of hope to people suffering from heart diseases.
According to the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the researchers were looking into cardiomyocytes, the cells responsible for muscle contraction in heart and regeneration in newborn mammals.
'At the time of birth, the cardiac muscle cells still can undergo mitotic cell division,' senior author Dr. Paul Schumacker explained. 'For example, if the heart of a newborn mouse is damaged when it's a day or two old, and then you wait until the mouse is an adult, if you look at the area of the heart that was damaged previously, you'd never know that there was damage there.'
The scientists deleted the mitochondria-associated gene UQCRFS1 from the hearts of adult mice to force them to return to fetal-like state as cardiomyocytes regenerate faster in that stage.
'This is a first step to being able to address one of the most important questions in cardiology: How do we get heart cells to remember how to divide again so that we can repair hearts?' commented Dr. Schumacker.
The findings also revealed that increase in glucose intake could also restore cell division and growth in adult heart cells.
Based on the study, the researchers are now working on identifying drugs that can trigger the same response in heart muscle cells.
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