Heart possesses regeneration powers - study
POSTED April 4, 2009 - 13:25 | POSTED BY Pankhuri Kapoor
Last edited by Sham Kamboj on April 4, 2009 - 14:22
A new revolutionary study proposes that the human heart cells regenerate at the rate of 1 percent every year. This scientific breakthrough can help lower the need of human heart transplantation.
The study was conducted by Jonas Frisen of Sweden's Karolinska Institute on 50 volunteers. The carbon dating technique that elevates the hope of artificially stimulating the renewal process was used. Frisen and group used the method to check out the possibility of regeneration was there or not.
The Carbon-14 dating confirmed that the hearts of these volunteers were younger than their ages. “The rate at which the new cells are produced slows as we get older, with a young adult in their twenties renewing cells at a rate of about 1 percent a year, falling to half a percent a year by the age of 75”, says Frisen.
He adds, “Taking advantage of the heart's own capacity to generate new cells either using pharmaceutical compounds or, if it is possible, by exercise or any other environmental factor.”
Cardiologists till now believed that there were master cells called stem cells in the heart, but heart muscle usually simply form scar tissue after damage and never fully regenerate.
Dr Federico Quaini of New York Medical College had published a similar study in the January 2002 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. He said, “I have incontrovertible evidence that endogenous mechanisms exist that result in the formation of new myocardium in the adult human heart.”
Frisen says, “We are interested in studying whether some heart diseases could potentially be caused by too low an ability to replace heart cells.”
If these findings are established then the scientists will soon try and find ways to take advantage of on the heart's regenerative powers and help reduce transplants and heart failures.
“This is the first time it's been conclusively shown in humans that heart transplant patients get additional cells from the part of the heart left behind as well as from other parts of their body”, concludes Dr James Willerson from the Texas Heart Institute.
