Transforming scar tissue into beating heart muscle may help
repair cardiac damage Washington, Apr 19 (ANI): Researchers
including one of Indian origin have declared a research
breakthrough in mice that shows promise to restore hearts
damaged by heart attacks-by converting scar-forming cardiac
cells into beating heart muscle. Gladstone Institutes scientists
previously transformed such cells into cardiac muscle-like cells
in petri dishes. But Gladstone postdoctoral scholar Li Qian,
PhD, along with researchers in the laboratory of Deepak
Srivastava, MD, has now accomplished this transformation in
living animals-and with even greater success. The results may
have broad human-health implications. "The damage from a heart
attack is typically permanent because heart-muscle cells-
deprived of oxygen during the attack-die and scar tissue forms,"
said Dr. Srivastava, who directs cardiovascular and stem cell
research at Gladstone, an independent and nonprofit biomedical-
research institution. "But our experiments in mice