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Nature Medicine 13, 901–902 (1 August 2007) | doi:10.1038/nm0807-901

Cardiac aid to the injured but not the elderly?

Charles E Murry

Like modern-day alchemists, scientists have been searching for cell populations capable of regenerating the heart. Their search is prompted by the fact that the injured heart heals by scar formation rather than by muscle regeneration, and this lack of regeneration is a root cause of most clinical cases of heart failure.