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Zebrafish Protein Repairs Heart Tissue — A Possible Heart Attack Therapy
Researchers at the Hubrecht Institute, University Medical Center (UMC) in Utrecht, The Netherlands, have isolated a protein that allows adult zebrafish to repair a damaged heart.
Heart attacks or myocardial infarctions cause massive losses of cardiomyocytes, our heart cells. The loss of these cells happens in the millions and once they die cannot be regenerated. In an adult zebrafish, however, a damaged heart can be regenerated.
Jeroen Bakkers who is in the Department of Pediatric Cardiology at UMC notes in a Hubrecht Institute news release:
“We don’t understand why some species can regenerate their hearts after injury while others cannot.
He goes on.
“By studying zebrafish and comparing them to other species, we can uncover the mechanisms of heart regeneration. This could eventually lead to therapies to prevent heart failure in humans.”
What exactly does a zebrafish have that humans or laboratory mice do not? It is a protein that gets activated when a zebrafish’s heart is damaged. A gene by the name Hmga1 generates a protein with the same name that stimulates cardiomyocyte production when a heart muscle is injured. The injury appears to be the stimulus for the gene to express the protein.
