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Even though heart attacks may not be deadly, they can leave your ticker damaged. The reason: they occur when blood flow to a section of heart muscle becomes blocked. If the flow of blood isn't restored quickly, a section of the heart muscle becomes damaged from the lack of oxygen and begins to die, weakening its ability to pump blood.

Researchers have long wondered whether such damage could be reversed, that is, whether hobbled heart muscle cells could regenerate — potentially affecting the ability of scientists to hatch ways to repopulate damaged heart tissue. A study in Science today confirms that some heart muscle cells do, in fact, regenerate slowly over the course of a person's lifetime. Scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden report that in early adulthood, we're continually renewing about 1 percent of our heart cells a year; that regeneration slows down, but it still occurs in old age, with a little less than half of 1 percent of cells regenerating at age 75. All told, we've renewed about 40 percent of our heart cells by age 70, neuroscientist Jonas Frisén told Science in a podcast.

Those results suggest that heart cells could, in fact, be nudged to regenerate or artificially replaced through cell transplants, according to an editorial accompanying the study. "Even though cardiomyocyte (heart muscle cell) turnover is low in the adult heart, the fact that it occurs at all suggests that it can potentially be therapeutically exploited," write Charles Murray, co-director of the University of Washington's Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, and Richard Lee, an associate physician in cardiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

In this study, Frisén compared the age of heart cell DNA to chronological age in people who were alive during Cold War nuclear tests and would have been exposed to radioactive carbon-14. Because carbon-14 is stored in DNA strands, Frisén was able to use the isotope (whose levels have declined since above-ground nuclear test bans were implemented in the early 1960s) as a marker to calculate the rate at which cells turn over. We profiled Frisén's carbon dating technique in the November 2005 issue of Scientific American.

To learn more about how scientists might repair damaged heart tissue, check out our 2004 feature on rebuilding broken hearts.

Hear a 60-Second Science podcast on this study.

Image © iStockphoto/Mads Abildgaard

3 Comments

1. 1. Dr John D. Son 07:13 PM 4/10/09

   Several years ago,I reported in the Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients that I believe that stem cells found in Peyer's Patches in the GI tract migrate to various organ systems in the body regenerating new tissue.
   I am a chelationist and had noticed about 6-9 months after being chelated patients showed marked improvments in cardiac output as well in inproved immune function
   The role the chelation played was to improve the microcirculation in the entire circulatory system thus delivering more nourishment to the stem cells in Peyer's Patches.
   I believe also that the appendix,rather than being a worthless part of the intestine actually plays a role in the production of stem cells that help repair and "refresh" organ systems.
   Dr John D. Son NMD

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2. 2. elitehealth 02:52 AM 6/10/09

   It’s like a really surprising blog for any one who is suffering from heart disease. If we would be able to somehow regenerate the heart muscles in humans, by studying the zebra fish, which would be considered as a revolutionary move in the field of healthcare and medicine. But the rate at which damage occurs to the heart cells might be beyond their recovery cycle. So, though it might not be that helpful in recovery as soon as we find it, but still for youngsters, it can be like a boon. I was having a blockage on the coronary arteries, and was on the verge of getting damaged. I was really unaware of that blockage since a long time until my physician asked me to get a heart scan done after he found that my basic cardiograms were not perfect. I discovered that there were calcium deposits in my coronary arteries and I was at a serious risk of a heart attack. I was shocked and went ahead with the Cardiologist's suggestion of an advanced diagnostic scan. Though it’s always tough to undergo such experiences, I was not at any kind of discomfort at the Elitehealth.com advanced heart scan facility. I am not an expert in medical appliance and machines but could feel that the equipment was world-class and I was in safe hands. That feeling is really very important for me and that’s how it actually went on. The facilities for Full Body Scan were as good as they can get.

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3. 3. Darkend Warrior 11:50 AM 11/11/09

   cool

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