Researchers from the University of Sydney, the Baird Institute and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital have shown for the first time that human heart muscle can regenerate after a heart attack, challenging decades of assumptions that such damage is permanent. The findings, published in Circulation Research, come from a novel "pre-mortem" tissue-sampling method that collected living heart tissue from both scarred and healthy areas of patients undergoing bypass surgery.
A heart attack can destroy up to a third of a person's heart cells. Lead researcher Dr. Robert Hume said the scarred heart nonetheless produces new muscle cells, opening the door to therapies that boost this natural repair process. Professor Sean Lal added that the ultimate goal is to use the discovery to grow new heart cells capable of reversing heart failure.
The stakes are high: roughly 144,000 people in Australia alone live with heart failure, while only about 115 heart transplants are performed there each year, leaving most patients without a curative option. The team now hopes to identify ways to amplify the heart's own regenerative signal.