Gene fixes heart damage in mice
From Times Wire Reports
Researchers have figured out how to switch on a gene in adult mice that repaired their hearts after a heart attack, a finding that may one day help fix heart damage in humans.
The team at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, whose findings appear in the journal Circulation Research, studied the gene cyclin A2, which is active in embryos but shut off in adult mammals.
Heart cells in mice, and in humans, stop regenerating after birth. The researchers found that by manipulating the gene, adult mice were able to make new cells to replace those damaged in heart attacks.
