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When a heart attack occurs, blood flow to the heart stops. Without oxygen, part of the heart muscle dies.
The heart muscle does not regenerate; instead, the dead tissue is replaced by scars made up of cells called fibroblasts that do not help the heart pump. If there are too many lesions, the heart gradually enlarges (dilates), becomes weak, and eventually stops working.
“The current idea is that advanced or chronic heart failure, a condition in which the heart muscle becomes very weak, is a point of no return. The current understanding is that in this condition it is not possible to stimulate the heart to generate new Heart cells repair themselves and only palliative treatment is available to patients,” said corresponding author Dr. Tamer MA Mohammed, associate professor of surgery and medicine and director of cardiac regeneration at Baylor College of Medicine.
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“In this study published in the journal Cardiovascular Research, we show that advanced heart failure can be treated to improve heart function in an animal model.”
In a previous study, Mohammed and colleagues successfully used gene therapy to improve acute heart disease in animals. Their method effectively and specifically delivered genes that promote proliferation into heart cells, thereby generating new heart muscle.
This approach not only strengthened the heart and improved its ability to maintain blood flow, but also prevented the congestion that commonly occurs in the liver, kidneys and lungs in mice and pigs.
“In this study, we did something that had not been done before,” Mohammed said. “We intervened with the same gene therapy, but not during acute heart failure or at the beginning of the disease as in our previous experiments, but at the end of the disease during the chronic phase four weeks after the heart injury has severely damaged the heart. Had arrived.”
Four months after the animals were treated, researchers checked heart function and heart structure. “We were surprised to see evidence of significant cardiac cell proliferation, a significant reduction in scar size, and significant improvement in heart function,” said first author Dr. Riham RE Aboulissa, assistant professor of surgery-cardiothoracic surgery at Baylor.
“Although cardiac dilatation and lung congestion associated with chronic heart failure were not improved, the treatment partially improved liver and kidney function.”
The findings show for the first time that, contrary to expectations, it is possible to induce cardiac cell proliferation and improve heart function during advanced stages of heart failure, as well as have some beneficial effects on liver and kidney function.
“Our work has important implications for the large group of patients with advanced heart failure who currently have no treatment to improve their condition,” said Mohammed. “This approach offers the possibility of developing new therapies in the future for this deadly disease.”
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