Scientists, including one of Indian
origin, have identified two chemicals which can improve speed, quantity and
quality of direct cardiac reprogramming, bringing the technology to regenerate
damaged hearts one step closer. The new discovery advances efforts to find
effective treatments for heart failure. Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes
in the US are exploring cellular reprogramming in the heart as a way to
regenerate muscle cells in the hopes of curing, heart failure. It takes only
three transcription factors – proteins that turn genes on or off in a cell – to
reprogramme connective tissue cells into heart muscle cells in a mouse. After a
heart attack, connective tissue forms scar tissue at the site of the injury,
contributing to heart failure. The three factors, Gata4, Mef2c, and Tbx5 (GMT),
work together to turn heart genes on in these cells and turn other genes off,
effectively regenerating a damaged heart with its own cells. However, the method
is not foolproof. In the new study, scientists tested 5500 chemicals to try to
improve this process. They identified two chemicals that increased the number
of heart cells created by eightfold.
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