When it comes to self-healing mechanisms, we can be lucky to have a body that can take care of itself. Scientists have also long studied how the heart repairs itself after a heart attack. These studies aim to find information that could lead to the creation of more effective cardiovascular treatments.
A new study also found that the lymphatic system, which is part of the body’s immune response and immune system, is critical in the heart’s ability to repair itself after a crisis has damaged the cardiac muscle. Finding the function performed by macrophages, that is, special cells that can eliminate bacteria or generate beneficial inflammatory responses, was crucial to the study.
These macrophages are the first responders at the scene after a heart attack, releasing a specific type of protein called VEGFC. The researchers discovered that macrophages, or immune cells, quickly turn to the heart after an attack to “eat” injured or dead tissue and produce vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGFC), which aids healing by triggering the development of new lymphatic capillaries.
In order for the heart to repair itself, a process known as efferocytosis in which macrophages play an important role, dying cells must be cleared. The scientists also explain how macrophages that produce the right type of VEGFC perform a proper repair job by examining the process in laboratory cells and animals.
“The next challenge we now have to overcome is to administer VEGFC to accelerate the heart repair process or coax these macrophages to induce more VEGFC,” said Edward Thorp, a pathologist at Northwestern University in Illinois.
Future studies may focus on ways to improve the number of beneficial macrophages in the heart by reducing or even eliminating harmful macrophages, increasing the chances of a successful recovery.
The findings of the study were published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
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