IU SCIENTIST RECEIVES GRANT FOR RESEARCH ON HEART CELL REGENERATION

INDIANAPOLIS - Heart attacks and most forms of heart disease cause muscle loss due to cell death in heart tissue. Enough cell death causes the heart muscle to weaken or quit functioning. And, unlike some other organs, heart muscle does not regenerate, or so it was believed until recently.

Research by Loren J. Field, Ph.D., professor of medicine, pediatrics, and of physiology and biophysics at the Indiana University School of Medicine, has proven in mouse models that heart muscle can be induced to regenerate following genetic stimulation. He is now focusing on various strategies to increase the muscle mass in human hearts.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health, has renewed its interest in Dr. Field's research by awarding him a $1.35 million, four-year grant to continue his research into the cloning of genes that regulate the proliferation of cells in the heart. His research at IUSM has been continuously funded by the NIH through grants since 1990.

Dr. Field is investigating ways to promote cell growth by introducing growth-regulating genes into the cells of a diseased heart in order to regenerate tissue and strengthen muscle mass.

Other research from his group has developed a method for the grafting of a healthy heart muscle cell into a diseased heart. It is hoped that these two approaches will ultimately provide a method for replacement of scarred, nonfunctional tissue in a diseased heart with viable, functional cells. Some day these procedures may be used as a less invasive alternative to some types of conventional cardiac surgeries.

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