Protein patch could be helpful in accelerating recovery after heart attack

Though these first trials were only conducted on animals, the positive results have researchers estimating that patches could be ready for human trials around 2017. The scarring is common following a heart attack, which makes the heart not pump as effectively and sometimes cause it to fail. Depending on the severity, such damage may lead to further complications, including arrhythmias – abnormal heart rhythms – and heart failure.

To deal with this issue, Professor Pilar Ruiz-Lozano looked toward the zebrafish, a species that can regenerate its own heart cells using a special layer of cells in the heart called the epicardium, which release over 300 proteins that trigger the replication of cardiomyocytes.

Though this protein occurs naturally in hearts that are healthy, it is depleted in a key part of the heart following a heart attack.

New heart muscle cells (green with yellow nuclei) grow in the infarcted region of a mouse heart treated by the patch loaded with FSTL1.

However, with the use of a protein patch that aids the cardiac cells to replicate, researchers are now able to establish that they can spur the progressiveness of new cardiac muscle. The patch improved the heart function of each animal that wore it, even directly following a heart attack.

A doctor is likely to request changes to a person’s medical routine immediately after they suffer a heart attack. They then designed a collagen-based material coated in FSTL1, and placed it on the hearts of pigs and mice forced to have a heart attack.

Most people survive an initial heart attack.

“We are really excited about the prospect of bringing this technology to the clinic”, said Mark Mercola, professor of Bioengineering at UC San Diego and professor in the Development, Aging, and Regeneration Program at SBP.

The study was conducted by an worldwide team of researchers who soaked a collagen patch in a protein known to be Fstl1.

“The data suggest that the loss of epicardial FSTL1 is a maladaptive response to injury, and that its restoration would be an effective way to reverse myocardial death and remodeling following myocardial infarction in humans.”

The newly grown cells protected the heart muscle and tissue against scarring. FSTL1 caused the damaged heart muscle cells to get re-built and multiply. These cells led to less scarring, and the animal’s hearts returned to near normal function very soon after the procedure. He adds, “It’s commercially viable, clinically attractive and you don’t need immunosuppressive drugs”.