TREEtment for Heartbreak

In an average lifetime, the human heart beats 2.5 billion times, making it one of the most hardworking muscles in your body. But unlike skeletal muscles, when your heart is damaged, it can’t regenerate. Researchers hope to change this using tissue regeneration enhancer elements (TREEs). These DNA sequences tell cells to express (turn on) genes involved in tissue regeneration. TREEs from zebrafish – which can regenerate their hearts – were shown to work in mammals when they were packaged into viruses and injected into mice. Now, a team have screened a library of TREEs by engineering them into different versions of a virus called AAV and infecting mice whose hearts had been injured. In vivo (in the living animal) bioluminescence imaging (pictured) of the mouse hearts revealed a new TREE–virus combination (right) whose expression was stronger in injured hearts than established TREE–virus combinations (left). This brings us closer to finding TREEs that could help repair damage after a heart attack.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Lux Fatimathas

Writer

Having pursued science through a career in research, communications and publishing, she is currently a writer and editor for a healthcare marketing agency and also juggles freelance science writing.

• Image from work by David W Wolfson and colleagues
• Duke Regeneration Center, Department of Cell Biology: Department of Surgery, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, United States Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife (reviewed preprint), June 2025