Wikipedia, Heikenwaelder Hugo.Cardiac cells lose most of their capacity for proliferation and regeneration shortly after birth, making it difficult for hearts to recover from damage later in life. But researchers have identified four human microRNAs that can stimulate proliferation of adult rodent cardiac cells in culture and help protect against damage during heart attack in vivo, according to a study published today (December 5) in Nature. If the microRNAs work similarly in human cardiac cells, they may have potential as regenerative therapies after heart damage.
“This is a different approach to repairing damaged cardiac tissue,” said Scot Matkovich, a molecular biologist at Washington University in St. Louis who was not involved in the research. In contrast to stem cell-based approaches, which aim to integrate new cells into the heart, microRNAs (miRNAs) could potentially be a way of “waking up existing cardiomyocytes immediately adjacent to an area of [heart] trauma, still in their native environment, so they can proliferate a little further and fill in the gaps,” Matkovich explained.
Shortly after birth, mammalian heart cells lose most of their capacity to proliferate, which makes it difficult to repair damaged heart tissue, following a heart attack, for example. One approach currently being examined is the use of stem cells, differentiated into cardiomyocytes ...
