Source: Children's Hospital Boston
Date: October 11, 2006
Summary:
Using a two-drug approach, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have demonstrated that it may be possible to rescue heart function after a heart attack and protect the heart from scarring. Working with rats, they combined an agent that overcomes a natural inhibitor of cell division with a naturally occurring growth factor that encourages blood vessel growth (angiogenesis). Together, these two agents enabled heart-muscle cells to multiply and the heart to regain its function after a simulated myocardial infarction (congestive heart failure).
Commentary: This finding might eventually lead to an effective treatment for congestive heart failure in humans if researchers can replicate the combination of overcoming the natural inhibition of cell division with the cell growth factor that encourages cell growth in a large and diverse patient population.
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