Most people survive an initial heart attack. But their heart suffers permanent damage, and often leads to heart failure within a few years.
Researchers from UC San Diego and Stanford have identified a molecule that helps heart muscle cells regenerate after a heart attack.
The discovery was successfully tested in mice and pigs.
In the new study, researchers identified a protein, called Follistatin-like 1 (FSTL1), that’s made in the outer surface of the heart. When they put it in a patch and applied it to damaged animal heart muscle, the hearts regained close to normal function within eight weeks of treatment.
UC San Diego professor of bioengineering Mark Mercola said there are a handful of other molecules that can stimulate heart muscle cells to regenerate.
“But very few have actually been tested in adult animals," he said. "And of those, I’m not aware of any that have been tested in a pig. So, this sort of jumps ahead of the field.”
Mercola pointed out that it's important to test the intervention in more pigs before moving it to humans.
“Another thing we need to do before going to humans, is to know how long after injury will it work," he said. "In the pigs, we were doing it a week after injury. Will it work two months after injury?”
Mercola believes it might be possible to test the patch in human trials by 2017.
