TORONTO (Dispatches) -- University of Calgary researchers have discovered a previously unidentified cell population in the pericardial fluid found inside the sac around the heart. The discovery could lead to new treatments for patients with injured hearts.
The Kubes lab, in collaboration with the Fedak lab, found that a specific cell, a Gata6+ pericardial cavity macrophage, helps heal an injured heart in mice. The cell was discovered in the pericardial fluid (sac around the heart) of a mouse with heart injury. Working with Fedak, a cardiac surgeon and incoming Director of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, the same cells were also found within the human pericardium of people with injured hearts, confirming that the repair cells offer the promise of a new therapy for patients with heart disease.
Working together and bringing expertise across disciplines the basic researchers working with the cardiac surgeon, clinician researcher, have identified the cell in less than three years. A relatively quick time frame to move research from the lab and animal models to people.