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Cardiology

Solace for the broken-hearted?

Nature volume 433, pages 585–587 (2005)Cite this article

A Correction to this article was published on 02 March 2005

The heart was thought to lack the capacity to regenerate after injury. But the identification of cells that can divide and mature into heart muscle suggests that the heart has repair mechanisms after all.

Heart attacks are fatal when they damage more than a quarter of the heart's left ventricle — killing off about 109 heart cells in the process. In patients who survive less severe attacks, dead heart cells are replaced by cells from the connective tissue called fibroblasts, which divide and migrate into the damaged area to form scar tissue. In these areas, the ventricular wall becomes thin and no longer contracts properly. Until recently, it seemed that the heart could not mend such an injury, but several reports now suggest that it might have some regenerative capacity after all1,2,3. On page 647 of this issue, Laugwitz and colleagues4 provide compelling evidence that there are progenitor cells in the heart that might be able to engage in repair.

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Figure 1: Cells for cardiac transplantation therapy.

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  1. Hubrecht Laboratory and the Interuniversity Cardiology Institute of the Netherlands, University Medical Centre, Uppsalalaan 8, Utrecht, 3584 CT, The Netherlands

    Christine L. Mummery

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  1. Christine L. Mummery
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Mummery, C. Solace for the broken-hearted?. Nature 433, 585–587 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/433585a

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