The research, published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, has shown that cells in the outermost layer of an adult heart can, under the effect of a specific protein, induce blood vessel development in the adult heart. The protein, thymosin beta 4, is already known for its ability to reduce muscle cell loss after heart attack.

The study was lead by Dr Paul Riley, a senior lecturer at the institute, who works on heart development. Speaking to Times City from London, Dr Riley explained, ``It was earlier believed that the process of formation of new blood vessels in the heart happens only at the embryo stage. But our experiments on mice have shown that thymosin beta 4 can induce cells in the outer layer of the adult heart epicardium to differen tiate into endothelial cells that can lead to the formation of new blood vessels.''

The formation of fresh vessels in the heart is important both in patients with known cardiac history or those who are exposed to cardiac risk factors.

``When some heart cells are compromised, the muscle mass in the immediate vicinity have to work extra hard to compensate. But so far there was no known way of increasing their nutrition level in a way that is commensurate with the extra load they are handling. This opens the possibility".