https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/sec ... ients.htmlThe ability of certain fish to heal damage to their hearts could lead to new treatments for patients who have suffered heart attacks and may also help to unravel how the lifestyle of our parents and grandparents can affect our own heart health.
The human heart cannot heal itself. After a heart attack – where blood flow to the beating cardiac muscle is interrupted, starving it of oxygen – scar tissue forms in place of any dead cells over the next few weeks.
This stiffer scar tissue interferes with the heart’s ability to pump blood around the body, making cardiac arrest and lethal heart failure more likely in the future.
There are no drugs or treatments that can repair the damage caused by a heart attack and cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 17.9 million deaths each year. In Europe alone it claims the lives of four million people annually – almost half of all deaths in the region.
But nature proves, however, that repairing the heart is not impossible. Mice embryos and very young mice can generate new heart muscle cells after an injury, and some fish can even regrow damaged heart muscle as adults.
Interesting read. These fish can also repair their own kidneys, spinal column and fins.
