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Heart Cells - College Essay

Heart Cells

�Crooners who lament that broken hearts never mend may need to find another tune.� Scientist are finding new evidence that suggests that, contrary to scientific consensus, heart muscle cells do divide and the number of cells can increase.
The vast majority of heart muscle cells, or myocytes, had been thought to stop dividing by the time a person reaches the age of 9. These cells then pump blood for the rest of a healthy person's life. In people stricken by a heart attack, the cells die and are replaced by scar tissue.
The first report of a human myocyte caught in the act of dividing appeared in July 21. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). The myocyte came from a left ...

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to know to what extent such treatments might repair damaged hearts, such as those suffering congenital heart disease.
Scientist and researchers at the University of Udine in Italy, studied hearts removed from 27 people who had received transplants. The researchers stained slices of heart tissue half a micrometer thick and used a confocal microscope to count the individual cell nuclei caught in the process of division. Judging from these samples, They found that a estimate of 131 to 152 myocytes in every million were dividing.
That proportion suggests that the cells of a damaged ventricle could be replaced within a year, the researchers calculate. However, many heart-attack victims do not recover their previous pumping efficiency nearly that quickly.
Researchers speculate that if new cells merely enlarge the heart, the weakened organ may suffer further damaging strain. If the cells grow in a way that thickens the heart wall, however, they might make the organ stronger. ...

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 4/11/2004 11:36:26 AM
Category: Health & Medicine
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 429
Pages: 2

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