title: Evidence for cardiomyocyte renewal in humans.
abstract: It has been difficult to establish whether we are limited to the heart muscle cells we are born with or if cardiomyocytes are generated also later in life. We have taken advantage of the integration of carbon-14, generated by nuclear bomb tests during the Cold War, into DNA to establish the age of cardiomyocytes in humans. We report that cardiomyocytes renew, with a gradual decrease from 1% turning over annually at the age of 25 to 0.45% at the age of 75. Fewer than 50% of cardiomyocytes are exchanged during a normal life span. The capacity to generate cardiomyocytes in the adult human heart suggests that it may be rational to work toward the development of therapeutic strategies aimed at stimulating this process in cardiac pathologies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Olaf
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bergmann
authors.forename: Ratan D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Bhardwaj
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bernard
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zdunek
authors.forename: Fanie
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Barnabé-Heider
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Walsh
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zupicich
authors.forename: Kanar
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Alkass
authors.forename: Bruce A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Buchholz
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Druid
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jovinge
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Frisén