A heart attack permanently damages the heart and reduces its ability to pump blood. But protein injections may help reverse such damage, according to new research.
The problem with heart scar tissue is that it cannot expand and contract, unlike normal myocardial tissue.
This means that the heart as a whole cannot expand and contract as before. In addition, the remaining undamaged heart tissue has to work harder than before, increasing the risk of heart failure, arrhythmias and other complications.
An international team of researchers led by Dr. Robert Hume at the University of Sydney recently set out to make the damaged part of the heart beat normally. They focused on a naturally occurring protein precursor in our bodies called tropoelastin. It produces elastin, a protein that gives certain tissues their elasticity and elasticity.
For this study, scientists injected purified tropoelastin directly into the heart wall of rats four days after the rodent had a heart attack. Achieved by a new technology that is precisely guided. It is reported to be much less invasive than traditional techniques.
Twenty-eight days after injection, the rat heart scars became smaller, softer, and more elastic, and the tissue began to exhibit “muscle function similar to that before the heart attack.” It was found that poelastin treatment caused human cardiac fibroblasts, the cells that maintain the structure of the heart, to produce elastin.
“What we found is very encouraging,” said Assoc of U Sydney. He is Professor James Chong, senior author of the paper on this study. “We hope to continue developing this method so that it can eventually be used in clinical settings and used to treat and improve the lives of millions of heart failure patients around the world.”
The paper was recently published in the journal circulation research.
Source: University of Sydney via Simex
