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research shows heart muscle can heal itself with right support and rest

"this is the strongest evidence we have, so far, that human heart muscle cells can actually regenerate, which really is exciting."

by karen hawthorne
published dec 30, 2024
read time 2 minute read
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read time 2 minute read
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there is currently no cure for heart failure, although medications and healthy habits can slow the progression. getty images
new research has shown that the heart muscle in humans has the capacity to regenerate, pointing to potential therapies and a cure for heart failure. scientists at the university of arizona’s sarver heart center in tucson co-led an international study of artificial heart patients where some patients regenerated muscle cells at more than six times the rate of healthy hearts. the results were published recently in the journal circulation.
there is currently no cure for heart failure, although medications and healthy habits can slow the progression. the treatment for advanced heart failure is a heart transplant with a donor heart or a pump replacement through an artificial heart, called a left ventricular assist device, which provides a constant flow of blood to the rest of your body.

key to regeneration is rest for heart muscle

what’s actually happening with the left ventricular assist device is key to discovery, the research team has found. the pump pushes blood into the aorta, bypassing the heart. so, the heart muscle is essentially resting—something the heart doesn’t naturally do right after birth and onward because it focuses 24-7 on pumping blood.
as dr. hesham sadek, director of the sarver heart center and chief of cardiology at the university, explains in a university news report, “skeletal muscle has a significant ability to regenerate after injury. if you’re playing soccer and you tear a muscle, you need to rest it, and it heals.” he continues, “when a heart muscle is injured, it doesn’t grow back. we have nothing to reverse heart muscle loss.”

related stories

heart failure in canada: stats, impact and resources
heart failure has been called an 'epidemic' as the most rapidly rising cardiovascular disease in canada, but as many as four in every 10 of us don't know what heart failure is.
heart failure is one of the top reasons why people in canada are hospitalized, and one in five heart failure patients will be readmitted to hospital within a month of being discharged.

what is heart failure? complex, chronic and misunderstood
knowing the differences between heart failure, heart attack and cardiac arrest is a lot more important than an exercise in medical terminology. it is critical for people to know what to do when they have symptoms.
heart failure is one of the top reasons for hospitalization in canada and as many as one in five heart failure patients will be readmitted to hospital within a month of being discharged, according to research by the heart and stroke foundation.
story continues below
sadek led the research collaboration that began with tissue from artificial heart patients provided by colleagues at the university of utah health and school of medicine led by dr. stavros drakos, a pioneer in left ventricular assist device-mediated recovery. physician scientists from the karolinska institute in stockholm, led teams in sweden and germany and used their method of carbon dating human heart tissue to investigate whether these samples contained newly generated cells. they did, as mentioned, finding that some patients regenerated muscle cells at more than six times the rate of healthy hearts.
“this is the strongest evidence we have, so far, that human heart muscle cells can actually regenerate, which really is exciting, because it solidifies the notion that there is an intrinsic capacity of the human heart to regenerate,” sadek says in the news report.
“it also strongly supports the hypothesis that the inability of the heart muscle to ‘rest’ is a major driver of the heart’s lost ability to regenerate shortly after birth. it may be possible to target the molecular pathways involved in cell division to enhance the heart’s ability to regenerate.”
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canadian society for exercise physiology
karen hawthorne
karen hawthorne

karen hawthorne worked for six years as a digital editor for the national post, contributing articles on health, business, culture and travel for affiliated newspapers across canada. she now writes from her home office in toronto and takes breaks to bounce with her son on the backyard trampoline and walk bingo, her bull terrier.

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