A new study co-led by a physician-scientist at the University of Arizona Sarwar Heart Center has shown that a subgroup of patients with artificial hearts can regenerate heart muscle tissue.

The discovery, published in the journal Circulation, could lead to innovative treatments and potentially a cure for heart failure, a condition that affects about 7 million adults in the US and is responsible for 14% of annual deaths.

There is currently no cure for heart failure, with treatment options limited primarily to medications that slow its progression or advanced interventions such as heart transplants and left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), which pump blood. Help to do.

Dr. Hesham Sadek, director of the Sarwar Heart Center, said that skeletal muscle can regenerate after injury, but cardiac muscle has long been thought incapable of such recovery.

The research team, funded by a grant from the Leduc Foundation Transatlantic Network of Excellence Program, examined tissue samples from artificial heart patients provided by colleagues at University of Utah Health.

He collaborated with international experts who used innovative carbon dating techniques to identify newly formed heart cells.

Remarkably, the findings showed that patients with artificial hearts regenerated muscle cells at a rate six times higher than those with healthy hearts. “This is the strongest evidence we have to date that human heart muscle cells can actually regenerate,” Sadek said.

He emphasized that this study supports the hypothesis that the inability of the heart muscle to “relax” soon after birth contributes to the loss of its regenerative capacity.

Studies suggest that artificial hearts could provide a form of “bed rest” for heart muscles, allowing them to recover like skeletal muscles after injury. Dr. Sadek’s goal is to investigate why only 25% of artificial heart patients exhibit this regenerative response and how to enhance this ability in all patients.

These findings not only provide hope for better treatments for heart failure, but also highlight the potential of the mechanical heart to serve as a therapeutic option in regenerative medicine, allowing scientists to better understand the heart’s intrinsic healing capabilities. And are brought closer to using them.