Newborn heart muscle can grow back by itself

Researchers at UT Southwestern have found that the heart of a newborn mouse can grow parts of itself back by itself. They took a piece of the heart out within the first week of life, and

the heart regenerated as if nothing had happened to it. This is a huge breakthrough in the treatment of heart disease; if we can find out what makes this possible for young hearts, we may be able to coax older hearts into "remembering" how to repair themselves.

In the experiment, 15% of the heart was removed, and it grew back in 3 weeks. The researchers believe that most of the regeneration came from the remaining cardiomyocytes, which stopped beating long enough to divide into a new cell. The next step in this line of research is finding out why the heart turns off its ability to regrow, and what we can do to turn it back on, when needed.

I found this article interesting because the research involved went along with last weeks SNBAL, where they found that the lung tissue of a neonatal mouse was much more likely to regenerate, than that of an older mouse, and shows more and more that young mammals seem to have many safeguards built in against disease and injury, and may aid us in treating diseases in older mammals.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-newborn-heart-muscle.html