A way to "reprogram" the heart after a heart attack was found
The new technique corrects the damage caused by a heart attack by reprogramming the scar cells.When a person has a heart attack, a large amount of scar tissue is left in his or her blood vessels, preventing the organ from being flexible and therefore from functioning. Researchers have studied how young hearts recover and found a way to transmute scar tissue into healthy tissue in mice, thereby compensating for some of the damage caused by heart attacks.
Researchers at Duke University (DU) studied the function of fibroblasts. These cells are involved in the formation of both connective and scar tissue. But it turned out that adult fibroblast cells were resistant to reprogramming, unlike juvenile cells.
It turned out that the difference was in the protein oxygen sensor Epas1, which prevented adult cells from following reprogramming instructions. When Epas1 was inhibited in adult cells, they successfully transformed.
With Epas1 inhibited, the research team sent RNA packets to mice that had heart attacks. The RNA contained reprogramming instructions to transform the fibroblasts into healthy heart tissue and was wrapped in exosomes, sac-like structures found throughout the body.
The technique proved successful. "We were able to restore almost all of the cardiac function that was lost after a heart attack by reversing the aging of fibroblasts in the heart," the scientists conclude.
The study is published in Journal of Biological Chemistry.