Nuclear bombs have shown that the heart is renewed

2009/06/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Anatomia/Fisiologia
• Fisika

Those seeking treatment for heart disease have received hopeful news thanks to isotopes released during nuclear bomb testing. Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm concluded that heart cells are renewed into the atmosphere based on carbon release 14.

Nuclear tests were interrupted in 1963 and since then the concentration of carbon 14 in the atmosphere has been decreasing. In any case, plants consume 14% carbon present in the atmosphere, and people eat the plants. Thus, the proportion of carbon 14 in a person's cells is related to what was in the atmosphere at the time of the cell's distribution.

Researchers have measured the proportion of people born before 1955 in carbon 14 heart cells. At that time there was still no nuclear test, but they have seen that some heart cells have a high carbon 14 content, higher than the proportion that existed in the atmosphere at the time of their birth. This means that the heart cells are renewed.

In principle, heart cells renew at a very slow pace, but researchers believe that you can "accelerate the pace of renewal" with certain substances. Some heart disease may lead to new treatments.