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Scientists claim it is possible for the heart to recover from a heart attack
Medical expert of the article
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
Regenerative medicine specialists have made a revolutionary discovery that could completely change the treatment of patients who have suffered a heart attack in the coming years. Thanks to the new technology, scientists have managed to make heart cells begin to recover from damage. At this stage, scientists are conducting all their work with laboratory rodents, but they assure that by 2020 they will be able to learn how to use similar technology on humans.
It is known that human blood, skin and hair cells are constantly being restored, but this does not apply to heart disease, here, despite all scientific achievements, medicine is practically powerless. Currently, specialists do not know a method that could help in the restoration of cardiac cells (cardiomyocytes) that died as a result of a heart attack. However, a new joint work of specialists from a research university in Israel and the Institute of Cardiology Research in Sydney has shown that humanity has hope for a healthy future.
Scientists claim that in just 5 years they will be able to apply the cardiomyocyte restoration technology to humans; now some time is needed to improve the new treatment method.
During their research, the specialists observed Danio fish and salamanders, which are known to have a constant process of restoring heart cells throughout their lives. In laboratory conditions, the specialists tried to create a similar restoration system in rodents, which they used for their experiments.
The head of the scientific project, Richard Harvey, explained the characteristics of the animals that took part in the work. Salamanders and fish have always attracted scientific interest from specialists, since only they have mechanisms for restoring damaged heart cells. In these creatures, cellular losses are replenished by earlier forms of cells, resulting in the formation of a new myocardium.
Harvey's team managed to trigger a similar recovery mechanism in rodents by triggering the production of a special hormone in the heart. The hormone neuregulin stops being produced in the human body on the seventh day after birth, and in rodents - on the twentieth.
When the production of this hormone is resumed, the heart muscle acquires the ability to recover. In rodents that had suffered a heart attack, after the hormone production was restarted, the heart muscle was restored to the state it had before the infarction.
The team of researchers believes that all the necessary additional studies will take about five years. Scientists want to make sure that such a technology for restoring cardiomyocytes will be effective in the human body.
It is worth noting that a person who has suffered a heart attack suffers irreversible damage to heart cells. As a result, a person's quality of life after a heart attack is significantly reduced and many limitations arise. If the above-described method works in the human body, then patients after a heart attack will be able to return to a full healthy life.
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