Scientists have discovered what they believe could be cardiac master cells, capable of developing into different tissues in the heart. Groups of US scientists, working independently, have discovered two separate candidates.
One has the capacity to produce all three major tissues in the heart, the other two of the three.
The breakthrough, published in the journal Cell, raises hopes for new treatments for heart disease.
The findings challenge the notion that the heart’s different cell types are so diverse they must have come from separate sources.
The heart is the earliest organ in the body to develop, and the one most susceptible to congenital defects.
Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said until recently it was thought that the heart had no means of regenerating itself if it became damaged.
If the human equivalent of the new cells is found, it could be given to patients to rebuild heart tissue that cannot be repaired today. The work could also give biologists new tools to look for heart drugs.
There has been a rush of work in recent years to develop therapies that inject cells capable of repairing patients’ damaged heart muscle. But the field has been hampered because biologists have not known what type of cell to use. Researchers around the world have launched clinical trials, but the trials have used blood cells, not heart cells, and the results have been modest, at best.
The research identifies, for the first time, a kind of master heart cell, similar to a stem cell, with a proven ability to build a wide range of heart tissues. The scientists cautioned that important obstacles remain before cell therapies based on the research can be tested in humans.