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The gene of a Mexican fish that allows the species to repair his heart after damage may one day help him Heart failure treatments in humans, say the researchers.
A team from Oxford University, in Great Britain, identified a gene called lrrc10 in Mexican tetra fish.
The tetra fish (Astyanax Mexicanus) living in the rivers of northern Mexico have retained their ability to repair their heart tissue even after millions of years.
Humans suffering from heart failure can not regenerate their damaged hearts and often, the only cure is a heart transplant.
The researchers hope that by discovering the secrets of these remarkable fish, we will one day cure the heart of man in the same way.
"Until now, the real challenge was to compare the lesions and heart lesions in fish to what we see in humans, but looking side by side at river fish and cave fish, we were able to identify the genes responsible for cardiac regeneration, "the lead author, Mathilda Mommersteeg, an associate professor at Oxford.
In the study, reported in the journal Cell Reports, the team discovered that fish from one of the caves called Pachon had lost the amazing ability to regenerate their heart, their color and their ability to see.
Mommersteeg and his team compared the genetic code of river fish with that of blind cave fish to determine the special mechanisms needed to repair the heart in the period following a heart injury.
They discovered that three areas of the fish genome were involved in the fish's ability to repair their heart.
Two genes – lrrc10 and caveolin – were much more active in river fish and could play a key role in repairing the heart of river fish.
Lrrc10 is already linked to heart disease called dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in humans and has already been implicated in contraction of heart cells with every heartbeat, the researchers said.
In addition, the team analyzed the effect of this gene on zebrafish, another fish that has the remarkable ability to heal one's own heart. When the team inactivated the lrrc10 gene in zebrafish, they found that the fish could no longer completely repair their heart.
–IANS
rt / mag / sed
(This story has not been changed by Business Standard staff and is generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
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