The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7329 p845
11 December 2004

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Protein can mend hearts

A protein found to promote survival of mice heart muscle cells could be used to treat the damage caused by a heart attack. In mice treated after myocardial infarction with thymosin b4, a peptide important for cell migration and survival in the embryonic heart, more heart tissue survived and the muscle was better able to contract and pump blood than in those animals treated with a placebo (Nature 2004;432:456).