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News
For the first time, researchers have confirmed that the human heart can produce new muscle cells after a heart attack — overturning decades of medical dogma. The discovery, published in Circulation Research, was made using living heart tissue from patients. Scientists now hope to amplify this natural repair process to develop treatments for heart failure.
For decades, doctors believed that heart muscle lost during a heart attack was gone for good. A new study from the University of Sydney, the Baird Institute, and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital is rewriting that assumption — researchers have confirmed, for the first time, that the human heart can produce new muscle cells after a heart attack.
The findings, published in Circulation Research, were made possible by a novel approach: collecting living heart tissue from consenting patients undergoing bypass surgery. This "pre-mortem" sampling allowed scientists to study real human heart biology in the lab, rather than relying on animal models or post-mortem tissue. The team also identified several proteins previously linked to heart regeneration in mice — a promising lead for future human therapies.
The catch? The heart's natural regenerative response isn't nearly strong enough to undo the damage from a heart attack on its own. Researchers hope to develop therapies that can supercharge this process.
By the Numbers:
Why it matters: Heart failure currently has no cure short of a transplant — a resource available to very few. If scientists can harness and amplify the heart's natural regenerative ability, it could open the door to therapies that reverse heart failure for millions of patients worldwide.
