Research reveals new insights into why the heart does not repair itself
June 5, 2017
Heart muscle is one of the least renewable tissues in the body, which is one of the reasons that heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Inspired by the idea of helping the heart repair itself, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the Texas Heart Institute have studied pathways known to be involved in heart cell functions and discovered a previously unknown connection between processes that keep the heart from repairing itself. This finding, published in the journal Nature, opens the possibility of developing strategies that will promote heart cell renewal in the future.
"We are investigating the question of why the heart muscle doesn't renew," said senior author Dr. James Martin, professor and Vivian L. Smith Chair in Regenerative Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. "In this study, we focused on two pathways of cardiomyocytes or heart cells; the Hippo pathway, which is involved in stopping renewal of adult cardiomyocytes, and the dystrophin glycoprotein complex (DGC) pathway, essential for cardiomyocyte normal functions.
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