As the rate of cardiovascular disease continues to rise, an increasing number of people face the threat of irreversible damage from a heart attack. But German researchers have uncovered a direction that could prove to be promising: Taking adult mice whose hearts had become damaged, the scientists experimented with deleting the gene responsible for oxidation in the cells responsible for muscle contraction and general function of the heart—effectively returning those cells to the state before birth. As a result, the mice showed signs of cardiac tissue regeneration and significant restoration of heart function, similar to as before the injury. While this does not yet translate into a pharmaceutical option for human treatment, researchers are optimistic.
