Mouse heartCOURTESY OF THE BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION
A newly identified type of resident progenitor cell in the outer layer of heart tissue can be coaxed to proliferate, migrate into heart muscle, and transform into cardiomyocytes, according to new research published this week in Nature.
The research, which was conducted using mice, suggests that the human heart could be encouraged to repair itself after a heart attack by stimulating a pool of resident adult progenitor cells—a therapy that would be preferable to cell transplantation, which runs the risk of host immune rejection and limited survival of the transplanted cells.
"What this work shows is that there is an inherent capacity for the heart to repair itself," said Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, which funded the study, at a press ...
