Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College, Baylor College of Medicine and Stony Brook University Medical Center have discovered three particular genes that can convert a damaged cell in the heart to a functioning muscle cells, according to Medical Xpress.
A severe heart attack weakens the heart leaving behind a scar, and unhealthy heart is more likely to develop heart failure. Scientists have discovered genes that can reprogram these scar tissues into a functioning heart muscle.
"The idea of reprogramming scar tissue in the heart into functioning heart muscle was exciting," said Dr. Todd K. Rosengart, chair of the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at BCM and the report's corresponding author, according to the Medical Xpress report. "The theory is that if you have a big heart attack, your doctor can just inject these three genes into the scar tissue during surgery and change it back into heart muscle. However, in these animal studies, we found that even the effect is enhanced when combined with the VEGF gene."
"This experiment is a proof of principle," said Dr. Ronald G. Crystal, chairman and professor of genetic medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and a pioneer in gene therapy, who was included in the research. "Now we need to go further to understand the activity of these genes and determine if they are effective in even larger hearts."
In order to reprogram the scar tissue into a functioning heart muscle to strengthen the heart, an operation was conducted where Rosengart and his colleagues injected three forms of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene that improve the growth of the blood vessels into the hearts of rats. Later after three weeks, the rats received Gata4, Mef 2c and Tbx5, together they are termed GMT.
The results were impressive when the GMT alone reprogrammed the scar tissues by half and found more heart muscles when compared with animals that did not receive GMT. GMT also improved the "ejection fraction," where the percentage of blood is pumped out of the filled ventricle or pumping chamber of the heart, when compared to those who did not receive genes, according to the report.
Furthermore the results were much better when the animals received VEGF and GMT. The ejection fraction was four times greater in those animals that received both genes than those who just received GMT alone.
"We have shown both that GMT can effect change that enhances the activity of the heart and that the VEGF gene is effective in improving heart function even more," said Dr. Crystal.
The findings of this study are published online in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
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