New research advances the possibility of regenerating cardiac tissue after a heart attack. Once the heart is fully formed, the cells that make up heart muscle, known as cardiomyocytes, have very limited ability to reproduce themselves. After a heart attack, cardiomyocytes die off; unable to make new ones, the heart instead forms scar tissue. Over time, this can set people up for heart failure.
New work published April 17th in Nature Communications advances the possibility of reviving the heart’s regenerative capacities using microRNAs – small molecules that regulate gene function and are abundant in developing hearts.
In 2013, Da-Zhi Wang, PhD, a cardiology researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital an...
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