Imperial College London researchers have discovered a new benefit for a compound that has been prescribed by practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine for more than 1000 years. Before modern production techniques from pharmaceutical companies allowed the compound to be produced and purified in the lab, Ursodeoxycholic acid ( or UDCA), was found in bear bile.

Made from the bile of the Asiatic black bear, the bile was originally identified by the Chinese because it contained a higher percentage of UDCA than the bile of other mammals. Bear bile was believed to reduce fever, protect the liver, improve eyesight, break down gallstones, and act as an anti-inflammatory.

Today, pharmaceutical UDCA is prescribed as a drug to decrease production of cholesterol in the body and to dissolve gallstones.

The new study from Imperial College London suggests UDCA could potentially be prescribed to treat abnormal heart rhythm or arrhythmia, both in the fetus and in people who have suffered a heart attack. Laboratory tests suggested that UDCA acts on non-beating pathological heart cells called myofibroblasts, which interfere with how electrical signals travel across the heart.

For the first time, the team demonstrated that UDCA can prevent arrhythmia of the heart, by altering the electrical properties of myofibroblasts. These cells are found in the fetal heart but disappear shortly after birth. However, they reappear in patients that have had a heart attack, when they are involved in laying down scar tissue.

"These findings are exciting because the treatments we have now are largely ineffective at preventing arrhythmia in patients who develop an abnormal heart rhythm after a heart attack," said Dr Julia Gorelik, the study's senior author. "Our results from the lab suggest that UDCA could help the heart muscle conduct electrical signals more normally. We're hoping to set up a clinical trial to test whether these results translate to patients with heart failure."

The study is published online in the journal Hepatology.

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