Scientists hope to use newborns’ stem cells to mend broken hearts

A new discovery has raised hopes stem cells could be used to regrow the broken hearts of those with cardiac conditions, while lab-grown beating heart tissue may save children with deformed pumps.

New Melbourne research is raising hopes stem cells can be used to regrow the broken hearts of people with cardiac conditions.

Murdoch Children’s Research Institute scientists have found a newborn’s stem cells can regenerate damaged heart tissue, though the process switches off after their first few days of life.

Researchers are now searching for a way to turn the regeneration process back on, opening a way to repair hearts damaged in heart attacks or other forms of heart disease.

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Murdoch Children’s Research Centre’s Associate Professor Enzo Porrello. Picture: University of Melbourne

Having previously discovered the heart-healing process in mice, Associate Professor Enzo Porrello is working to confirm the process in humans and identify genes involved in the regrow “switch” as a potential treatment.

“The newborn heart has an incredible ability to regenerate and repair itself following injury, which is in contrast to adults who have a really limited capacity to regenerate following damage,” Assoc Prof Porrello said.

“If we can understand the process and potentially harness that regenerative ability (we may) design drugs that might reawaken that regenerative capacity later in life, for example following a heart attack.

“If we can harness that regenerative ability early on in life it may facilitate the surgical repair of congenital defects.”

Assoc Prof Porrello will today be announced as the recipient of one of two $50,000 Metcalf Prizes from the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia in recognition of his leadership in the field.

It comes after he found mice who had up to 15 per cent of their heart’s main chamber removed on their first day of life were able to completely regrow the missing section, however the ability is lost after their first week.

His MCRI team is also part of a wider consortium to developing lab-grown beating heart tissue, which they hope can one day be implanted into children with the most severe congenital heart disease.

Engineered from a patients own stem cells, it is hoped the tissue would not be rejected by a patients body.

Overcoming heart disease is a very personal crusade for Assoc Prof Porrello. Of his two cousins born with a hole in their hearts, one lived a full and healthy life after it healed, but the other died in childhood.

Assoc Prof Porrello worked in Texas at a leading heart development laboratory where he began his examination of regenerative heart tissue in mice, before setting up a lab at the University of Queensland.

Eighteen months ago he returned to Melbourne to further his research at MCRI, which is located within the Royal Children’s Hospital.