While a heart attempt dupe might go back from the event , their heart often ends up scarred . This scarring , rather than being trivial like on the skin , can make the heart and soul pump less in effect and eventually cause it to neglect . Now scientistshave developeda prototype patch that could enable cardiac muscle to regenerate and prevent the development of scar tissue paper .
Using a collagen patch tincture with a specific protein , the researchers were able-bodied to stitch the patch onto the heart of shiner and pigs that had undergone a sum onset . They found that it promote the ontogeny of respectable cells and even blood vessels , helping supply the new tissue paper with oxygen and nutrient . Ultimately , this reduced the amount of mark . “ This finding start the door to a completely radical treatment,”saysPilar Ruiz - Lozano , who lead the research published inNature .
Most citizenry now pull round heart attack , but piddling piece of work has been done on the endure legal injury , which can direct to long - term handicap and even death . It was to this problem that Ruiz - Lozano and his squad atStanfordturned their attention . They start out by looking at other species of animals , such as fish , that can naturally restore their center muscle if it becomes discredited . They find that in these species the outside layer of the nerve , visit the visceral pericardium , stimulate existing pith brawniness cells to duplicate .
To figure out on the button what compounds might be creditworthy for this unbelievable regenerative ability , they then usedmass spectrometryto identify over 300 proteins in the visceral pericardium that they thought might work a part . From further examination and screening , the team was able to whittle down this list to just a single protein that encourages the cellular telephone growth : Follistatin - like 1 ( FSTL1 ) .
It was this protein that went on to form the core of the paradigm patch rise by the team . The researchers used a piece of collagen and infused it with FSTL1 . This gave the healing patch the flexibleness of fetal warmheartedness tissue , alongside the power to slowly release the protein directly onto to the heart muscle over prison term . It also means that the body would not disdain the implant , removing the want to give the patient immunosuppressive drugs . In fact , over clip the fleck becomes incorporate into the body .
So far , they’ve succeedin using the dapple on mice and pigs that have endure pump attacks . They found that the heart function was restored to close to normal floor just four to eight week after implanting it . The researcher now go for they can move onto human clinical test by as early as 2017 .