Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:The human heart can lose up to one-third of its cardiomyocyte (heart muscle cells) following a severe heart attack, but a new study found that the heart can regrow these cells following ischemia. Understanding this regenerative process can help scientists develop theories that further improve heart cell regeneration, warding off severe conditions like heart failure. In the U.S., nearly one million people die every from heart disease, often exacerbated by life-threatening heart attacks. By their very nature, heart attacks abruptly cut off oxygen and nutrients to all cells in the heart, eliminating up to one-third of those cells and causing irreparable damage. “Using living human heart tissue models in our work means that we will have more accurate and reliable data to develop new therapies for heart disease.”Similar therapies for improving heart health outcomes following a heart attack are already in the works.