Newborn Mice’s Hearts Can Heal Themselves, Study Finds

By: Sindia N. Bhahoo

An adult zebra fish can regenerate a damaged heart with no scar formation. This remarkable phenomenon has been seen in other fish and amphibians as well, but never before in a mammal. Now researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center report in the current issue of Science that the mammalian newborn heart can fully heal itself.

Dr. Hesham Sadek, a cardiologist at the medical center, and his colleagues worked with mice and found that if a portion of the heart was removed within the first week of life, the heart grew back completely.

I picked this article because I find it incredible that a little mouse can have such a strong heart.

This information is taken from The NY Times

Medical Detectives Find Their First New Disease

Carlos Frigo
Chris Wilkinson
Published: February 2, 2011
Published by: Gina Kolata

Louise Benge's medical problems started when she was 25 years old. Walking became painful. He calves got as hard as rocks, and every step was agony. Her hands started hurting too. And the condition, whatever it has, only got worse over the next two decades. It was Clear from her X-rays why Mrs. Benge.could barely walk. The blood vessels in her feet, legs and hands accumulating calcium deposits like the scale the sometimes forms inside water pipes. The deposits had grown so think that blood could hardly squeeze through. But calcium was only in those vessels of her legs and hands; her heart's vessels were spared, so she was not in the immediate danger of dying. I think this relates to my life because I had a bacterial disease once, but I don't think its as bad as this one. I chose this article because I am interested with diseases.