WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- Scientists are using a new technology to repair and regenerate heart muscle cells in mice , following a heart attack .
Robert Schwartz, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen , Professors of biology and biochemistry at the University of Houston College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics have developed a new technology which uses synthetic messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) to deliver mutated transcription factors -- proteins that control the conversion of DNA into RNA -- to mouse hearts.
They showed that two mutated transcription factors, Stemin and YAP5SA, work in tandem to increase the replication of cardiomyocytes, or heart muscle cells, isolated from mouse hearts. These experiments were conducted in vitro on tissue culture dishes.
The groundbreaking finding has the potential to become a powerful clinical strategy for treating heart disease in humans.
These findings are especially important because less than 1% of adult cardiac muscle cells can regenerate.