Stem Cells Repair Hearts Early in Life, but Not in Adults, Cornell University and University of Bonn Study

Stem cells can actually replace dead heart tissue after a heart attack very early in life -- but those same cells lose that regenerative ability in adults, according to researchers at Cornell University and the University of Bonn. The study, using mice as subjects, found that undifferentiated precursor cells grow new heart cells in a two-day-old mouse, but not in adult mice, settling a decades-old controversy about whether stem cells can play a role in the recovery of the adult mammalian heart following infarction -- where heart tissue dies due to artery blockage.

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