A possible way to activate the division of cardiomyocytes
Genetic disease will help restore the heart
But, unfortunately, heart cells are known for the fact that after a person is born, they do not divide, and any damage to the heart is healed by connective tissue, therefore it is not necessary to talk about restoring heart function.
Attempts to find cells in the heart muscle that would retain the ability to divide have led to disappointing results: there are negligible numbers of such cells.
But maybe the ability to divide in heart cells can be awakened? There are many studies on this topic, and the work of Daniel P. Judge and his colleagues from Johns Hopkins University (USA) makes another contribution. The attention of researchers was attracted by two sisters who had to undergo a heart transplant in childhood due to heart failure - one at three months, the other at five.
But when scientists took a closer look at children's hearts, it turned out that the cells in them continue to divide. (In the picture of such a cell, the arrows show the poles of the mitotic spindle, to which the sets of chromosomes – VM diverge.)
It turned out that in the genome of each girl there were two unusual copies of the ALMS1 gene; subsequently, it was possible to find several more people whose heart cells were dividing and who had the same variants of the ALMS1 gene.
These mutations, on the other hand, are associated with a rare genetic disease called Ahlstrom syndrome, in which obesity, diabetes, blindness, hearing disorders and heart disease develop. However, experiments on mice have shown that in animals with ALMS1 turned off, the number of heart cells increases by 10%, and division occurs after birth. However, after some time the division stopped.
It is clear that before manipulating this gene, it is necessary to think about how to protect the body from other consequences of such actions: after all, the division of heart cells in exchange for obesity, diabetes and new heart ailments is not a very adequate exchange. However, it is worth emphasizing that if it is possible to find a safe equivalent of such a mutation, it will allow healing the heart without resorting to stem cell procedures, which, unfortunately, still remain largely unpredictable.
The results of the study are published in the journal Nature Communications (Shenje et al., Mutations in Alstrom protein impair terminal differentiation of cardiomyocytes).
Prepared based on the materials of Johns Hopkins University: Researchers Find Protein 'Switch' Central to Heart Cell Division.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru05.03.2014