Gene can help to repair heart damage

SCIENTISTS have found a way to repair heart muscles in an unexpected medical breakthrough derived from the fight against cancer.

Unlike other muscles, the heart struggles to regenerate itself if it is damaged, so the discovery could help those who have suffered a heart attack or cardiac arrest.

The scar tissue left behind can result in the heart pumping less blood and eventually even failing.

But now there could be a way for doctors to help the organ fix itself.

The breakthrough came after researchers targeting a gene that can cause cancerous cells to spread found a way to switch it on and off.

In other parts of the body the gene leads to tumours growing – but when it becomes active in the heart it helps to mend damaged tissues.

The researchers carried out their work on mice, but it is hoped that the findings will benefit humans.

Around 23 million people worldwide suffer heart failure each year.

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