A sobering conclusion: Adult hearts contain no stem cells

Marie Bannier, a former normal student in the Biology Department at the ENS de Lyon, participated in the research and writing of this scientific publication as part of her 4th year. During a myocardial infarction, commonly known as a heart attack, the blood supply to part of the heart muscle is cut off. As a consequence, part of the heart muscle dies. Because the heart is a pump that maintains the blood circulation through our vessels, this is obviously a life-threatening situation. Most tissues of animals and humans contain stem cells that come to the rescue upon tissue damage: they rapidly produce large numbers of 'daughter cells' in order to replace lost tissue cells. For two decades researchers and clinicians have searched for cardiac stem cells, stem cells that should reside in the heart muscle and that could repair the heart muscle after a myocardial infarction. Multiple research groups have claimed the definitive identification of cardiac stem cells, yet none of these claims have held up.