Heart attacks are caused by blockages in the coronary artery. This cuts off the blood supply to part of the heart muscle causing an area of the muscle to die. The infarct or dead area can no longer contract, reducing the heart’s ability to pump. Scar tissue formed during the heart’s repair is inelastic tissue and also reduces the organ’s performance.

“If we can reduce the area of injury, then the heart will go on to perform better. This means that someone who has had a heart attack has a much better prognosis,” Dr Chris McMahon of AgResearch says.

A collaboration involving AgResearch and specialists from the Waikato Clinical School has found a single injection of Mechano-Growth Factor (MGF) into the coronary vessel following a heart attack reduces the spread of injury by as much as 30%. Professor Geoffrey Goldspink from the Royal Free and University College in London, who discovered MGF in 1997, is also helping with the project.

MGF is produced in the heart of skeletal muscle and is induced by muscle stretching or injury.

Further studies will be carried out on heart cells at AgResearch Ruakura’s tissue culture facilities, before eventual human trials.