A recent study has found that heart muscle can regenerate, which may provide new ways and means of treating and perhaps one day curing heart failure (also called heart failure).
The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Sarver Heart Center in Tucson, in the United States, and was published in Circulation magazine, and the Eurek Alert website wrote about it.
The researchers examined heart patients who underwent artificial heart transplantation, and found that the heart muscle cells in a portion of them (only a quarter of the patients) had renewed, which may be the result of allowing them to rest by having the artificial heart take on the burden of pumping blood, which indicates that this rest may It is beneficial for heart muscle cells.
Muscles are divided into 3 sections: skeletal muscles such as leg and forearm muscles, smooth muscles in the walls of the digestive tract, and heart muscles. It is known that skeletal muscle has a great ability to regenerate after injury, in contrast, when an injury occurs to the heart muscle, it does not regenerate again. The heart muscle cannot be regenerated and restored.
While the new study provides evidence that heart muscles can regenerate.
The strongest evidence
Study leader Dr. Hisham Sadiq, director of the Sarver Heart Center and chief of cardiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, said: “This finding is the strongest evidence we have yet regarding the ability of human heart muscle cells to regenerate, which is really interesting. The idea that the human heart has an intrinsic ability to regenerate also strongly supports the hypothesis that the inability of the heart muscle to rest is the main reason for the inability of its cells to regenerate soon after birth. It may be possible to target molecular pathways involved in cell division to improve the heart’s ability to regenerate “Regeneration.”
In the next step, Dr. Sadiq wants to know why cells renew in only a quarter of patients. He said: “It is still unclear why some patients respond while others do not, but what is certain is the ability of heart muscle cells to regenerate in those who respond. What must be focused on now is determining how to make everyone respond, because achieving this means the possibility of treating heart failure.” “.
What do we know about heart failure?
Heart failure is a condition in which the heart is unable to pump the amount of blood that meets the body’s needs, according to the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. This condition results from additional stress caused by health conditions that damage the heart or make it work too hard.
Some lifestyle factors such as smoking, being overweight, eating foods high in fat and cholesterol, and lack of physical activity can contribute to heart failure. Some medical conditions can also lead to this disease, such as uncontrolled high blood pressure, or the presence of any obstacle that resists the movement of blood in the heart, such as a problem with the valves, or the person has had previous heart attacks.
Heart failure is a chronic condition that gets worse over time. There is no cure for this condition, and treatment aims to control the symptoms and delay the worsening of the condition. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, heart failure affects approximately 26 million people around the world, and its prevalence increases every year.
Despite the role of medications in slowing the progression of heart failure, it is an incurable disease. The only treatment for advanced heart failure, other than a heart transplant, is an artificial heart.
The artificial heart is considered a treatment for patients suffering from advanced heart failure. It can be used as a temporary treatment until the patient receives a heart transplant, and it may be used as a lifelong treatment.