In a fitting tribute to Valentine's Day, the British Health Foundation (BHF) launched an $80 million dollar research project at the beginning of this 'love' month to investigate using stem cells to regenerate heart tissue and "mend broken hearts".

The ability of heart tissue to regenerate already occurs in some animals, such as zebrafish, which can regrow portions of their own hearts if they are damaged.

One of the British teams, led by Professor Paul Riley of the Institute of Child Health at University College London (UCL) has already found a natural protein, called thymosin beta 4, that plays a role in developing heart tissue.

Scientists in the United States reported last year that they had been able to turn structural heart cells into beating cells by identifying genes that, in a developing embryo, turn an immature cell into a beating heart cell or cardiomyocyte.

"Scientifically, mending human hearts is an achievable goal and we really could make recovering from a heart attack as simple as getting over a broken leg," said Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director at the BHF.

Source: Mending Broken Hearts Campaign; British Heart Foundation