Rejuvenating the heart – is it possible? (Cellular reprogramming)

Unlike other organs, the heart greatly loses its regenerative potential to repair damaged tissue shortly after birth. Instead, damage is patched up with fibrotic scars and this can reduce the functional capabilities of the heart. Other tissues typically repair damage and replace lost cells by having stem cells - cells that are undifferentiated, have the potential to self-renew but also to differentiate into specialised cells. Nobel Prize winning work has shown that you can reprogram specialised cells back to stem cells if they express "Yamanaka factors" - OCT4, SOX-2, KLF-4, c-MYC. This process is known as cellular reprogramming and is hoped to be a great tool for regenerative therapeutics. Is it possible for the heart cells (cardiomyocytes)? Well, this was tested in mice in a recent paper, where they show that partial reprogramming was able to get the cardiomyocytes to divide and reduce the amount of heart function lost after myocardial infarction. Complete reprogramming caused the cells to instead lose their identity and form neoplasms. So, what this work demonstrates is that there is potential to rejuvenate the heart, BUT, the expression duration and dose of the factors need to be carefully controlled to avoid cancerous growths. This will make applying this strategy to humans challenging, but who doesn't love a challenge? Find me on Twitter -   / eleanorsheekey   I have Patreon -   / thesheekeyscienceshow   TIMESTAMPS: Intro - 00:00 Heart & stem cells - 01:00 Cellular reprogramming - 02:20 Partial reprogramming - 03:30 Rejuvenate the heart? - 04:30 A safe approach - 09:00 REFERENCES: REVERSIBLE REPROGRAMMING OF CARDIOMYOCYTES TO A FETAL STATE DRIVES HEART REGENERATION IN MICE - https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s... Reversing aging for heart repair - https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s... Icons in intro; "https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-v..."Background vector created by freepik - www.freepik.com