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After birth, heart muscle has very little growth capacity. But researchers in Children’s Cardiovascular Program, led by Bernhard Kühn, MD, are developing treatments to regenerate and strengthen cardiac tissue in patients with heart failure, including children with congenital heart defects. In the July 24 issue of Cell, they report that the growth factor neuregulin1, found in the developing heart and nervous system, got mature cardiomyocytes to start proliferating in mice after heart attack when given by systemic injection. Moreover, after 12 weeks of treatment, left-ventricular dilation and cardiac hypertrophy were absent and cardiac ejection fraction had increased compared with controls.
Dr. Kühn is now testing this and other regenerative factors on heart muscle from children undergoing cardiac surgery, with the ultimate goal of conducting a clinical trial.
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