Mexican fish that can cure cardiovascular disease

A Mexican fish that can repair its own heart offers clues for future treatments in humans, according to new research.

Scientists discovered a gene that may hold the key to the fish’s ability to regenerate its heart tissue.

The same gene, called Irrc10, is present in humans, and researchers at Oxford University say their new findings hold potential to change the lives of heart attacks patients.

People suffering from heart failure can’t regenerate their damaged hearts, and often the only cure is a heart transplant.

The new evidence about these remarkable fish, called tetra fish, suggests we could one day be able to heal human hearts in much the same way.

For this study, publised in Cell Reports, Dr Mathilda Mommersteeg and her team studied two types of Mexican tetra fish - river-dwellers (Astyanax mexicanus) and cave-dwellers (Pachón)

Both types once lives in the rivers of Northern Mexico. The now called cave-dwelling fish were washed into caves by floodwaters about 1.5 million years ago and evolved, losing their sight and colour because of living in darkness.

The cave fish lost the ability to repair their hearts, whereas the river fish are still able to do so.

Comparing the two types of tetra fish, researchers found two genes - lrrc10 and caveolin - were much more active in the river fish following heart injury.

The lrrc10 gene is already linked to a human heart condition called dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).

Studies in mice have previously shown that this gene is involved in the way that heart cells contract with every heartbeat.

Having discovered this, they switched off the lrrc10 gene in a different species of fish with self-healing abilities, the zebrafish, native to the Himalayas.

With this gene no longer working properly, the zebrafish became unable to fully repair its heart without scarring.