How scientists are fixing damaged hearts like these with help of mice, zebrafish… and cloning – Central Recorder

A GOOD cry, a big tub of ice cream and the support of our friends and family will help most of us get over a broken heart.

Heart failure is another matter and in that case ice cream wont help.

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But for the near-million of us who are living with the condition, there is reason to be hopeful this Valentines Day.

Trailblazing scientists are working on a number of new approaches, including helping hearts to self-heal using groundbreaking regenerative medicine.

This could be great news for the 920,000 people in the country living with heart failure and suffering symptoms including breathlessness, tiredness, dizziness and extreme exhaustion after exercise.

Heart failure is most commonly caused by a heart attack, high blood pressure or inherited conditions.

It occurs when part of the heart is damaged and struggles to pump blood around the body. The condition can affect anyone but men over 65 are especially susceptible.

Now the British Heart Foundation is aiming to raise 3million to enable researchers to push the boundaries of medicine by finding ways to teach the heart to repair itself.

Professor Metin Avkiran, the foundations associate medical director, says: Unlocking these secrets could help heal hearts and transform the outcomes for people living with devastating heart failure.

And they are planning to mend our damaged hearts with the help of mice, zebrafish...and a little bit of cloning.

Sign up to be part of Team BHF and take on the 2022 TCS London Marathon either with a ballot or BHF charity place here: bhf.org.uk/londonmarathon2022

IN futuristic labs up and down the country, scientists are growing new heart cells and tissue from scratch.

Professor Stefan Hoppler and his team at the University of Aberdeen are growing heart muscle cells from stem cells and focusing on a protein called troponin T, which helps the heart to contract and relax.

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Theyre using the cells to mimic how heart muscle develops in the womb and hope that one day lab-grown ones will improve recovery after a heart attack.

Professor Sanjay Sinha at Cambridge University is using stem cells to grow actual beating heart tissue, in an effort to help more people with heart failure live healthier lives.

The ground-breaking tech could eventually be applied to damaged sections of the organ to encourage it to repair itself.

Then you have Dr Mairi Brittan, at the University of Edinburgh, who is looking at clone cells, or endothelial cells, found on the inside of blood vessels.

These cells are copies that move to areas that lack oxygen, and then create new blood and lymphatic vessels.

Dr Brittan and her team think finding ways to stimulate these cells after a heart attack could help the heart learn to rewire blood vessels and provide damaged areas with more oxygen.

This could save muscle and prevent heart failure.

Laura Stewart, 39, a fitness instructor who lives in Newport, Wales, with husband Alex, 48, and daughter Orla, four, is living proof of the importance of heart disease research.

In 2013, she was training for 10k races and marathons when she noticed her heart kept skipping beats, even when she was sitting relaxed on the sofa.

She recalled: It felt as if my heart would stop then suddenly beat quite hard. It would take my breath away.

Laura eventually saw her GP, who ordered an ECG that showed she had a condition called heart block.

She said: Its very serious but there are different levels first, second, and third degree. I was showing as first degree so he said theyd keep an eye on me and run further tests.

Six months later. Laura had a second ECG and just as it happened, her heart went into complete block, which can be fatal.

I was very lucky they saw it, otherwise I might not be here today, she says. I was shocked to be told the treatment was to be fitted with a pacemaker.

I was a fit and healthy 31-year-old. I didnt feel unwell. I didnt smoke. There is no history of family heart disease.

Laura was doing everything right. She had just been unlucky.

She had surgery in April 2014 at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, South East London.

Five other women on the ward all in their 70s and 80s were having the same procedure.

I kept thinking, I shouldnt be here. says Laura.

Physically, she recovered well, but mentally it was much harder to come to terms with. I found it hard to accept this was something Id have for the rest of my life.

Almost eight years on, Laura says the operation has meant she could have her daughter.

She says: If it wasnt for this amazing surgery, I would never have been able to have children my heart wasnt strong enough.

Studies are carried out on pacemakers all the time and if I were to ever need a new one maybe it will be smaller, maybe the battery will last longer.

Maybe Ill need a different implant altogether. There could be all sorts of advances that might benefit my life.

INCREDIBLY, zebrafish could provide the answer to getting heart patients back on their feet.

Dr Sarah De Val, at the University of Oxford, is studying developing blood vessels in zebrafish embryos.

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Her teams aim is to manipulate blood vessel growth in the human heart so it can bounce back better after a heart attack.

Their research on zebrafish a tiny, blue and silver freshwater species could one day benefit Lisa Brereton, 49, who suffered two heart attacks before the age of 40 and now lives with heart failure.

The NHS manager was 38 when she went from being absolutely fine to being in pain. I was feverish, with pins and needles in my left arm.

The pain kept her up at night but doctors could not work out what was happening, until May 2011 she went to an out-of-hours GP feeling very unwell.

She says: He sent me to A&E. I was admitted to the cardiac unit and underwent an angiogram which revealed Id had a heart attack on the Friday.

This came as a huge shock, as Id been out with my mum in the evening, and although I was in pain I dosed up on painkillers and still went.

Its strange when people ask me what it feels like to have a heart attack, as I have no idea. Its a myth that you always suffer chest pain and collapse. For me, it wasnt like that.

Lisa, who lives in Crystal Palace, South East London, had two stents fitted and was discharged with a monitor to check on her heart activity, which a month later flagged her troponin levels were raised an sign of heart-related activity.

She says: I had an angiogram and unfortunately during the procedure had a spiral dissection where a tear forms in a blood vessel, causing the heart distress.

Three more stents were fitted but two years later Lisa was feeling shattered and breathless again.

She had a leaking valve and also needed a coronary artery bypass graft, which involved open-heart surgery.

In June 2013, surgeons took a blood vessel from Lisas arm and attached it to the coronary artery to boost blood flow to the heart, and her mitral valve was repaired.

She says: The recovery was tough. I couldnt get upstairs at home without stopping for a rest and could only walk short distances.

In January 2014, the valve began leaking again and needed replacing.

She says: I found this very hard to take, as I hadnt fully recovered from the first operation.

I was not mentally prepared to go through it again.

Fortunately her doctor was amazing and found a trial drug usually used to improve the quality of life of elderly people too unwell for surgery.

She has been on it ever since and it has slowed the leak.

She says: I still have a reasonable quality of life,. I do Pilates and I swim.

I still get tired very easily and if I want to go out in the evening I have a rest in the afternoon to give me energy.

I might have to consider surgery for a metal valve in the future, but right now Im just trying to live my best life.

PROFESSOR Mauro Giacca at Kings College London and Dr Joaquim Vieira at the University of Oxford are hoping to advance heart treatment by exploring genetics.

Professor Giacca has been injecting mouse hearts with microRNAs small molecules that turn genes off.

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They make heart muscle cells multiply, which thickens and strengthens the heart muscle.

Potentially this could lead to stimulating human heart cells to regenerate and fix damaged areas.

Dr Vieira, meanwhile, is working on genes that in embryos in a process called the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) cause the heart to repair itself. If all goes well, patients could have access to the life-saving results within five to ten years.

In the meantime we can all adopt lifestyle changes to boost our tickers.NHS consultant cardiologist Kevin Fox says: The best thing you can do to keep your heart healthy is to stop smoking.

Reducing your salt, fat and red meat intake also helps, as does exercising regularly.

But all the radical scientific love and research offers huge hope for people like Laura and Lisa.

For anyone living with heart failure, that is definitely better than a bunch of roses from the garage this Valentines Day.

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How scientists are fixing damaged hearts like these with help of mice, zebrafish... and cloning - Central Recorder