London, Dec 24 (IANS) Tweaking the DNA can counteract heart injury and mimic the effects of two weeks of endurance training.
The experiment was carried out on mice but researchers hope that it could pave the way for treating injured hearts through muscle regeneration in humans, the Journal Cell reports.
Bruce Spiegelman, professor of cell biology at Harvard Medical School, said: ‘If we learn to manipulate this pathway with specific exercise regimens or with drugs, we might be able to achieve some of the benefits produced by exercise-related heart enlargement.’
The genetic manipulation of the gene C/EPB-beta spurred the animals’ heart muscle cells – called cardiomyocytes – to proliferate and grow larger by an amount comparable to normal mice that swam for up to three hours a day, according to the Telegraph.
The mildly enlarged hearts of the mice proved to be surprisingly resistant to cardiac stress that mimics valvular heart disease or the effects of high blood pressure.
According to the researchers, someday this observation might lead to therapeutic measures to treat or prevent heart failure in humans.
Scientists have discovered that adult cardiomyocytes retain the potential to begin dividing and spawning new muscle cells.
This study for the first time describes a genetic trigger that responds to physical exercise and turns on a molecular pathway that jump-starts cardiomyocyte growth – which could allow the heart to repair itself.
This study was unusual because instead of focusing on diseased hearts researchers looked at cardio changes following endurance exercise.
