Evidence that the heart can regenerate
Undifferentiated host cells can migrate to host donor tissue in transplanted hearts.
Jan 3, 2002
Conventional wisdom states that the heart cannot regenerate because cardiac myocytes — unlike cells in the bone marrow or intestinal epithelium — cannot divide. But, in 3 January
In post-mortem analysis, the atria of the recipient heart and the atria and ventricles of the graft were examined by immunofluorescence to determine whether Y chromosomes were present in the transplanted hearts. They showed that 7-10% of myocytes, coronary arterioles and capillaries in the donor hearts bore Y chromosomes.
Quaini