{"id":6453,"date":"2022-03-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=6453"},"modified":"2022-03-23T10:16:40","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T09:16:40","slug":"fixing-a-broken-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/2022\/03\/10\/fixing-a-broken-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Fixing a broken heart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

These stunning images are some of the highlights from eight cutting-edge projects that will receive millions of pounds of funding from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) in 2022.<\/p>\n\n

The funding is going to be raised by the 2022 TCS London Marathon.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cBHF-funded research has spearheaded treatments to give people with heart failure longer, healthier lives, but there is no cure. Regenerative medicine offers that hope,\u201d said Prof Metin Avkiran, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe money raised by the 2022 TCS London Marathon will enable these researchers to push the boundaries of medicine by finding ways to teach the heart to repair itself. Unlocking these secrets could help heal hearts and transform the outcomes for people living with devastating heart failure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

1 & 2. <\/strong>Researchers at King\u2019s College London created these luminescent mouse hearts to demonstrate the effect of the microRNA technique they are developing to strengthen heart muscle tissue.<\/p>\n\n

MicroRNAs are small molecules that regulate the expression of certain genes. The two hearts on the right of the second image have been injected with microRNAs chosen to stimulate the growth of heart cells, resulting in the development of much stronger muscle tissue \u2013 notice their thicker muscles and differing colours.<\/p>\n\n

The red dots in the first image show which cells are multiplying to make the heart muscle stronger.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

3. <\/strong>This image, taken by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, shows a two-day-old zebrafish that has been injected with different coloured proteins to highlight its complex array of veins, arteries and lymph vessels. The veins can be seen glowing green and yellow, while the lymph vessels and arteries can be seen in red.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

The ultimate goal of the project is to develop methods of controlling blood vessel growth in human hearts.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

4. <\/strong>This close-up image shows what could be one of the most technically advanced sticking plasters ever created. It was grown from stem cells by a team at the University of Cambridge and shows a patch of red heart cells peppered with white nuclei.<\/p>\n\n

The patches could one day be applied to a damaged heart, much like a sticking plaster, to help it to repair itself.<\/p>\n\n

Images: MARIO GIACCA X2, DR SARAH DE VAL, PROFESSOR SANJAY SINHA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These stunning images are some of the highlights from eight cutting-edge projects that will receive millions of pounds of funding from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":6449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"24","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"24","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_24-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_24-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"March-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"March-2022","purple_external_id":"March-2022-24-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"March-2022-24-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000089651||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000089651||","purple_android_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue375","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue375","purple_ios_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue375","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.focus.magazine.issue375","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"0f422ad1-c939-476d-9f82-a410052ad4c3","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-03-11T11:25:24Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"ccb9ab20-7891-4288-9c94-e18e47d9e519","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-03-23T09:16:47Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AzLmrIHiRQoiclOGOR9nlGQ","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[25],"tags":[15],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/03\/231de956-078c-4a7d-a140-1bd32ff5569a.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/03\/231de956-078c-4a7d-a140-1bd32ff5569a.jpg",1344,1882,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/03\/231de956-078c-4a7d-a140-1bd32ff5569a-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/03\/231de956-078c-4a7d-a140-1bd32ff5569a-214x300.jpg",214,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/03\/231de956-078c-4a7d-a140-1bd32ff5569a-768x1075.jpg",768,1075,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/03\/231de956-078c-4a7d-a140-1bd32ff5569a-731x1024.jpg",731,1024,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/03\/231de956-078c-4a7d-a140-1bd32ff5569a-1097x1536.jpg",1097,1536,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/03\/231de956-078c-4a7d-a140-1bd32ff5569a.jpg",1344,1882,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"These stunning images are some of the highlights from eight cutting-edge projects that will receive millions of pounds of funding from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) in 2022.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6453"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6453"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7308,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6453\/revisions\/7308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}