Characterising the active subset of cardiomyocytes in regenerating adult zebrafish hearts
Hundreds of thousands of people are living with heart failure, but there is no cure. This research in zebrafish may reveal ways to regenerate or repair damaged heart tissue after a heart attack or in heart failure, which could ultimately make a huge difference to patients in the future. After a heart attack, damaged human heart tissue cannot regenerate, and people’s quality of life is often affected. Zebrafish have found a way to overcome this problem - throughout their life, their hearts regenerate efficiently after injury. Understanding what factors allow fish heart cells to regenerate may reveal new strategies to help people with heart disease. Scientists have found that in fish, heart muscle cells themselves divide and repopulate an area of damaged tissue with healthy cells. Prof Roger Patient and BHF Prof Paul Riley have been awarded a BHF grant to investigate how these dividing heart muscle cells are different to non-dividing cells. They will study these cells in detail and hope to reveal the factors needed for zebrafish heart muscle cells to divide and efficiently regenerate heart tissue after injury. This research may reveal ways to trigger mouse and human heart muscle cells to divide - and may in the future hold the key to repairing human hearts.
Project details
| Grant amount | £305,364 |
|---|---|
| Grant type | Project Grants |
| Application type | Project Grant |
| Start Date | 01 October 2014 |
| Duration | 3 years |
| Reference | PG/14/39/30865 |
| Status | Complete |
