Study Shows How Scar Tissue Can Be Turned into Healthy Heart Muscle

September 28, 2017

(UPI) – Researchers from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill have found ways to reprogram scar tissue cells into healthy heart muscle cells. A major challenge for doctors is that the heart is unable to regenerate healthy cells, known as cardiomyocytes, after a heart attack, so muscles damaged after heart attacks stay damaged. UNC School of Medicine researchers compared two leading reprogramming techniques, finding that one method leads to the creation of cardiomyocytes with genetic signatures that mimic those found in healthy adult heart muscle cells.