The Human Heart Can Repair Itself, And We Now Know Which Cells Are Crucial For It

Scientists have been studying the ways in which the heart repairs itself after a heart attack in order to understand how our bodies repair themselves. They hope to find clues that will lead to better treatments.

The immune system of the body is important in the way that the heart repairs itself after a heart attack.

The discovery of the role played by specialist cells that can destroybacteria was the key to the study. The researchers report that the first responders to a heart attack produce a particular type ofProtein called VEGFC.

The immune cells that rush to the heart after a heart attack also cause the formation of new vessels in the lymphatic system.

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In order for the heart to repair itself, dying cells need to be cleared away. The team studied this process in cells in the lab and in mice, and pinpointed the way that the right type of VEGFC-produced macrophages did a proper repair job.

Future research could look into how to increase the number of helpful macrophages in the heart and reduce the number of damaging macrophages, boosting the chances of a healthy recovery.

The challenge now is to find a way to induce more VEGFC in order to speed the heart repair process.

When people have a heart attack, the heart becomes unable to pump blood around the body, which leads to heart failure. Modern-day drugs can reduce that risk, but it is still there.

Hundreds of thousands of people a year in the US are killed by heart failure because scientists don't understand how cardiovascular disease is caused.

This study will shed more light on how the process of efferocytosis is used to cause a heart attack.

We are working to understand more about the progression to heart failure after a heart attack, in order to intervene early and reset the course to cardiac repair.

The Journal of Clinical Investigation published the research.