Stiffening of the wall of the heart (fibrosis) can cause damage to its pumping ability and may lead to heart failure as the heart becomes unable to supply enough blood to the tissues of the body.
A team of scientists from Harvard Medical School and the Division of Matrix Biology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has completed a study in genetically modified mice, where an ongoing process in fibrosis of their hearts was not only halted, but was reversed so that their hearts could better pump blood. The miracle agent was a bone morphogenic molecule known as rhBMP7.
These researchers have halted fibrosis in several other organs such as the kidneys, lungs and livers by this same pathway, but this research confirms its usefulness in cases of heart failure.
This study was published on July 29, 2007 in the Advance Online Publication of Nature Medicine.
A more detailed summary can be found at http://www.Eurekalert.org – Study helps explain origins of cardiac fibrosis in patients with heart disease
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