For heart repair, call RNA
After attack, small molecules help contracting cells regenerate in mice
When people suffer a heart attack, they can’t regrow muscle cells that have died after being deprived of oxygen. But mice injected with small RNA molecules following heart attacks do regenerate cardiac muscle, researchers report in the March 18 Science Translational Medicine.
Scientists knew that a cluster of microRNAs, tiny molecules that keep genes from being turned on, are active in animal embryos at the same time that heart cells grow and divide. The RNA suppresses signals that tell organs to stop making new cells, a team of American and Chinese researchers found.