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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Embryonic hearts appear to have a surprising ability to generate new, healthy tissue when faced with a significant amount of diseased tissue.
In a new study conducted in mice, researchers found animals that were bred to have mosaic hearts featuring mixed cells -- about half normal and half lacking an important gene and thus considered abnormal -- still ended up with about 90 percent healthy heart tissue.
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Our findings reveal an impressive regenerative capacity of the fetal heart that can compensate for an effective loss of half of the cardiac tissue, study author Timothy C. Cox, from the University of Washington in Seattle, was quoted as saying. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first in vivo demonstration of selection against diseased tissue during embryonic heart development.
The womb-based activity, however, didnt protect all the mice over the long run. While their hearts did appear relatively healthy at birth, more than 40 percent went on to develop early signs of heart disease. This finding leads investigators to conclude some forms of heart disease may actually have origins in the womb.
SOURCE: Developmental Cell, published online October 13, 2008
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