Born to heal: Why babies recover, but adults scar, after heart damage

Newborns with heart complications can rely on their newly developed immune systems to regenerate cardiac tissues, but adults aren’t so lucky. After a heart attack, most adults struggle to regenerate healthy heart tissue, leading to scar-tissue buildup and, often, heart failure. A new study in experimental animals reveals a critical difference in how macrophages — a part of the immune system — help repair the heart in newborns versus adults after a heart attack. The study highlights a fundamental difference in how the immune system drives healing based on age. …read more