Patch Helps Heart Grow New Cells

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The advantage of this technique is that it doesn't require new cells, such as stem cells, to coax the growth of new heart cells. Stem cells might also migrate to other parts of the body, with unknown consequences, Kuhn said. The patch is "also not gene-based, so it's not gene therapy," he said.

It is possible that this same technique could be used in people who have severe heart disease, Kuhn said. Although the technique might not restore heart function back to normal, there could be significant improvement, he said.

"At this point, the only biologically proven myocardial [heart] replacement therapy is heart transplant," Kuhn said. "But with this method, if you were on a transplant list, you may be able to come off it," he said. "This could be a revolutionary approach to treating heart failure."

One expert was impressed by the findings.

"The work is important in at least two ways: It helps improve our understanding of the molecular pathways regulating cell cycle reentry in adult cardiomyocytes, and it can form a basis for novel heart therapies based on the mobilization of [the heart's own] cells," said Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, a professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City and co-director of the Tissue Engineering Resource Center at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

"It will be interesting to see the extensions of this work to human cells and other cell types, including cardiogenic stem cells that could also be affected by periostin," Vunjak-Novakovic said.

Another expert echoed those sentiments.

"This research nicely demonstrates that periostin induced cardiomyocytes' reentry into the cell cycle," said Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, director of the Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center at the University of California Los Angeles.

Rather than needing to introduce brand new cells into the damaged heart, it may be possible to induce existing cardiomyocytes to grow and thus regenerate normal functioning heart muscle, said Fonarow, who is also professor of clinical medicine at UCLA.

"The ability to enhance cardiac regeneration holds great promise as novel treatment strategies for [heart attack] complicated by left ventricular dysfunction and for chronic heart failure," he said.

But rat studies can only tell scientists so much, Fonarow added. "Additional studies with adult human cardiomyocytes, and ultimately clinical trials, are needed," he said.

More information

To learn more about how the heart works, head to the American Heart Association.