Seaweeds Can Repair A Damaged Heart

Scientists at Israel's Ben Gurion University claim to have discovered a miracle gel that could mend a damaged heart tissue, a breakthrough in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Currently there’s no way of repairing heart muscle after an attack.

Scientists for decades have experimenting with a number of methods to block further tissue damage in patients who suffer a heart attack. Now, an Israeli research provides a ray of hope for the experts who are trying for long to find a way to block re-growth of tissue damage.

A team of Israeli researchers, headed by Professor Smedar Cohen, said they have developed a gel from seaweeds which could stave off the risk of an additional damage. The gel, codenamed BL-1040, is derived from an ordinary type of brown seaweed, and can help repair heart tissue after it is damaged in a heart attack, the researchers claim.

After a heart attack, the layer of scar tissue becomes thinner and weaker than the original, and the left ventricledefine also becomes dangerously enlarged. Consequently, the heart becomes weaker, finding it hard to work properly which can trigger future heart failure.

According to the new research, the seaweed-made gel helps aid re-growth, thickening the tissue and so minimizing the risk of a further heart attack. The gel helps strengthen the heart by providing the "scaffold" for the tissue to regenerate better.

The substance is injected as a liquid into the area of the heart where the tissue has been damaged by an attack. The substance turns into a gel upon contact with the damaged cardiacdefine tissue, allowing a thick layer of scar tissue to grow, thus helping the heart to continue working normally.

"What it does is quite remarkable," lead researcher Cohen said of the gel that he co-developed at Ben Gurion University.

Cohen and colleagues reached their findings after conducting trials on animals, and found that 90 per cent of animals injected with the gel survived a heart attack, compared to 40 per cent who received no treatment at all. Researchers also found that the gel is naturally eliminated from the body after six weeks.

Human trials have already started in Germany, Belgium and Israel, and if the gel shows similar effects in the trials the substance could become available by 2011for the treatment of damaged heart tissues in Humans.

British doctors believe the gel made from these marine plants could help save an estimated 20,000 lives.