'Love hormone' oxytocin may help mend broken hearts (literally), lab study suggests - Livescience.com
The study was done in fish and human cells.In a new study of zebrafish and human cells, scientists found that the brain-made hormone may help heart tissue regenerate after injury and, in theory, could someday be used in the treatment of heart attacks, according to the researchers.
The new study, published Friday (Sept. 30) in the journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology (opens in new tab), highlights yet another potential benefit of oxytocin: At least in zebrafish, the hormone helps the heart replace injured and dead cardiomyocytes, the muscle cells that power heart contractions.The heart has a very limited ability to repair or replace damaged or dead tissue, the study authors noted in their report.But several studies suggest that after an injury, like a heart attack, a subset of cells in the heart's outermost membrane, called the epicardium, don a new identity.
These cells migrate down into the layer of heart tissue where muscles reside and transform into stem-like cells, which can then turn into several heart cells types, including cardiomyocytes. ?
Unfortunately, if the process does occur in people, it seems to unfold too inefficiently and in too few cells to result in meaningful tissue regeneration after a heart attack, the study authors said in a statement (opens in new tab).
By somehow encouraging more epicardial cells to morph into cardiomyocytes, the authors theorize, scientists could help the heart rebuild itself after injury. .
The study authors found they could jump-start this process in human cells in a lab dish by exposing them to oxytocin.