Non-stem cell treatment rebuilds heart muscle in a mouse

This just in: News about another non-stem cell-related tissue regeneration therapy. Scientists at Duke University used microRNAs to convert fibroblasts, or scar tissue, into heart muscle cells in a mouse, boosting the heart's ability to do its job. Such research, also pursued at the University of California, San Francisco, is potentially a significant breakthrough in regenerative medicine, which has relied on embryonic stem cells for much of the work in the field thus far. As a Fox News story on the research explains, these cells are the most flexible because they can become any type of cell. But microRNAs do the job more easily than stem cell transplants and avoid the ethical concerns that embryonic stem cells create, the article notes. Details are published in the journal Circulation Research. Story