Repairing Broken Hearts After a Heart Attack During a heart attack, part of the dead muscle is replaced by scar tissue which does not pump as healthy muscles do. Although scientists have not been able to find a way for the heart to regenerate cardiac muscles, new studies are breaking out in other areas of medicine that suggest ways how we may be able heal our hearts after an attack and go on function better than before!
What we know about heart injury
Fibrosis: Fibrosis is the formation of scar tissue that replaces dead cardiac cells, impairing heart function in blood pumping. This scar tissue is stiff and does not participate in the contractile function of the heart, which often results in congestive heart failure46.
Cons of Natural Healing: The heart is one of the few organs that cannot regenerate muscle cells, so when parts are damaged they do not recover like other tissues in the body. This becomes a fundamental variable in the continuum toward heart failure, where healthy surrounding muscle needs to work harder to account for the area that has been damaged34.
Creative Ways to Fix
Recent Research Has Demonstrated That This Essential Protein Responsible For Elasticity Can Be Injected Into The Heart Wall Immediately Following A Myocardial Infarction To Increase Scar Tissue Function. The approach has shown promise in animals and may have potential to partially recover at least some functional capacity of injured regions several years after SCI1.
Immune Cell Enhancement — Studies from Washington University have shown that expanding certain immune cells (macrophages) help to clear dead tissue and reduce inflammation following a heart attack.heart repair (ad) This method is directed at augmenting the normal healing response and may be able to protect against transition into heart failure2.
Cardiac Patches: An alternative approach would be to engineer cardiac patches combined with stem cells that could help assist in generating new tissue. This would provide structural support and release healthy cells directly into the damaged regions to improve heart performance5.
Future Directions
The current research into these various means of mending a broken heart is encouraging researchers to consider completely new ways of treating those who have been through the trauma of heart attack. Using biological tools and working to boost the human body’s natural healing system, scientists hope to reduce consequences of heart injury that can last for many years after an event — AfricaNewswire
Though classical understanding supposed that damage to the heart was largely irreversible, new strategies and therapies could go some way towards returning quality of life in patients who have had hearts attacks too.