Human heart tissue can actually regenerate after a heart attack, new research suggests:

Despite its importance, the heart is one of the few cells in the human body that cannot properly repair damage – or so it was thought for a long time.

Despite its importance, the heart is one of the few tissues in the human body that cannot repair damage well—or at least, that's what it's long believed to be.Australian scientists have now discovered that heart muscle cells regenerate independently after a heart attack.

If the blood flow is obstructed, the lack of oxygen kills the heart cells.The organ can patch up with scar tissue, but this unstable, fibrous tissue can't overcome it, making the heart less efficient.These abnormalities can lead to more future attacks and heart failure.

Rats seem to be happy to have hearts that can regenerate, at least partially.Cardiomyocytes (heart muscle cells) have been shown to divide again after a heart attack, but human heart cells do not do well after an injury.

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"Our research shows that while the heart is scarred after a heart attack, it produces new muscle cells, which opens up new possibilities," says Robert Hume, first author of the study and a cardiologist at the University of Sydney.

"While this new discovery of muscle cell regeneration is exciting, it is not enough to prevent the devastating effects of a heart attack. So, over time, we hope to develop drugs that can enhance the heart's natural ability to produce new cells and regenerate the heart after an attack."

Previous observational research in patients after cardiac surgery has suggested the possibility of regeneration of cardiac muscle cells after injury.

In this new study, Hume and colleagues examined human heart tissue in whole hearts from brain dead patients, as well as samples collected from patients during bypass surgery.

The team sequenced RNA (reads of DNA used to make proteins) and looked closely at protein and tissue metabolism.

"We also identified the environment [blood pressure] that promotes this intrinsic cardiomyocyte division in the heart, identifying transcripts, proteins and metabolites previously shown to induce [cell division] in mouse studies," the scientists wrote in a paper describing the work.

We hope that these findings could lead to new regenerative therapies that will one day allow us to address the world's leading cause of death.

The research was published in the journal Circulation Research.