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  • OUTLOOK

Cells or drugs? The race to regenerate the heart

Researchers are debating how to convince the heart to heal itself instead of laying down scar tissue after a heart attack.
  1. Benjamin Plackett

    1. Benjamin Plackett is a science journalist based in London and the Middle East.

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Twenty years ago, cardiologist and stem-cell scientist Piero Anversa published an exciting paper. He was then a prominent researcher at New York Medical College in Valhalla, and his data in mice showed that injured hearts could regenerate with the help of stem cells taken from bone marrow1 — contrary to prevailing wisdom.

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Nature 594, S16-S17 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01457-2

This article is part of Nature Outlook: Heart health, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties. About this content.

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