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Fetal stem cells can repair mom’s heart after heart attack

From Discover magazine: “Helpful Mouse Fetuses Naturally Send Stem Cells to Mom to Fix Her Damaged Heart”

The punchline is

When a pregnant mouse has a heart attack, her fetus donates some of its stem cells to help rebuild the damaged heart tissue.

The original article is available here.

Kara RJ, Bolli P, Karakikes I, Matsunaga I, Tripodi J, Tanweer O, Altman P, Shachter NS, Nakano A, Najfeld V, Chaudhry HW. Fetal Cells Traffic to Injured Maternal Myocardium and Undergo Cardiac Differentiation. Circ Res. 2011 Nov 14. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 22082491.