Heart Attack
Also known as myocardial infarction, a heart attack happens when the blood vessles that service the heart become blocked. With no blood flowing to the cells around those arteries, the cells die causing portions of the heart muscle to die as well. Once these cells are lost, they are not replaced, therefore causing permanent damage. Current research indicates that it may be possible to regrow the "damaged heart cells, heart tissue, valves and establish new blood supply to them." They would do this with the help of stem cells. Stem cells are the cells from which all other cells originate. They have the potential to develop into many different types of cells. These cells could be designed to develop into myocardial cells. They could then be used to replace the damaged heart tissue.
Read more about this topic: Cardiac Muscle Cell
Famous quotes containing the words heart and/or attack:
“Blows the wind to-day, and the sun and the rain are flying,
Blows the wind on the moors to-day and now,
Where about the graves of the martyrs the whaups are crying,
My heart remembers how!”
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)
“Philosophy can be compared to some powders that are so corrosive that, after they have eaten away the infected flesh of a wound, they then devour the living flesh, rot the bones, and penetrate to the very marrow. Philosophy at first refutes errors. But if it is not stopped at this point, it goes on to attack truths. And when it is left on its own, it goes so far that it no longer knows where it is and can find no stopping place.”
—Pierre Bayle (1647–1706)