New Delhi, Jan 20 || In a world-first discovery, scientists in Australia have found that the human heart can regrow muscle cells after a heart attack, raising hopes for future regenerative treatments for heart failure.
The study, published in Circulation Research, revealed that while parts of the heart remain scarred after a heart attack, new muscle cells are also produced, a phenomenon previously seen only in mice and now demonstrated in humans for the first time, news agency reported.
"Until now we've thought that, because heart cells die after a heart attack, those areas of the heart were irreparably damaged, leaving the heart less able to pump blood to the body's organs," said Robert Hume, research fellow at the University of Sydney and first author of the study.
"In time, we hope to develop therapies that can amplify the heart's natural ability to produce new cells and regenerate the heart after an attack," said Hume, also lead of translational research at Australia's Baird Institute for Applied Heart and Lung Research.
Though increased mitosis (a process in which cells divide and reproduce) after a heart attack has been observed in the heart muscles of mice, this is the first time the phenomenon has been demonstrated in humans.