Updated: Thu Mar. 01 2012 18:08:34

ctvwinnipeg.ca

When a person suffers a heart attack, the time it takes to get treatment is crucial. That's because once heart muscle tissue is damaged, it can't be healed.

A researcher from St. Boniface Hospital, however, has found a gene that could bring damaged heart tissue back to life.

"The cells that make up the heart muscle itself - once they're damaged or injured they're not replaced by new ones," said Dr. Lorrie Kirshenbaum, a researcher at St. Boniface Hospital.

Researchers had little success locating a key gene.

"This gene we've been chasing for about 12 years," said Kirshenbaum.

But now they've found it.

"For us, it was initially disbelief," he said.

Kirshenbaum is now working on a way to use gene therapy so that when a person suffers a heart attack, they won't suffer lasting damage to the heart.

Read the original:
Winnipeg researcher's gene discovery could help healing damage caused by heart attacks

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