British researchers develop a gel to repair damaged heart
text_fields
Heart diseases continue to pose threat to life expectancy across the world.
Studies have long been looking for ways to repair damage to heart muscles following a heart attack.
Finally, researchers in UK have come up with a gel made of chains of amino acids that can help patients quickly recover, improving the heart muscles.
The gel is found to be supportive to the growth of heart muscles, suggesting better cardiovascular treatment in near future.
Efforts were long underway to reduce the risk of progression to heart failure.
In order to help heal the damage, cells are being injected directly into the heart.
However, only one percent of the cells injected directly into the heart remain in place and survive there.
The new gel developed by UK scientists can be safely injected into a beating heart to become a sort of scaffold helping cells to grow new tissue.
The team of researcher from Universtiy of Manchester who presented the study at the British Cardiovascular Society conference here are hopeful of their gel becoming a key factor in future treatment for damaged hearts.
One of the researchers Katherine King said the heart has limited ability to repair any damage.
Katherine King said the gel would become an effective option to regenerate damage heart in future.
In order for the injected cell to develop into new tissue a good blood supply is vital.
Interestingly, they observed signs of blood vessel growth in the cell, giving hopes for the technology.
The researchers could reportedly prove the gel as supporting the growth of heart muscle tissue.
They are now heading to test the gel in mice to see if the heart cells can develop new muscle tissue after a heart attack.
