Transplanting genetically engineered cells into the heart may reduce the risk of a fatal condition which occurs after heart attack, research suggests.
Ventricular tachycardia - an unusually fast heart rhythm - is the main cause of sudden death after heart attack.
In mice, transplants of skeletal muscle cells engineered to produce a specific protein prevented the condition.
Experts said the study in Nature should help to direct research on using stem cells to treat heart attacks in humans.
The German researchers tested a variety of cells in mice who had been induced to have heart attacks.
They found that heart cells taken from 15-day-old embryos reduced the risk of ventricular tachycardia but other implanted cells, such as skeletal muscle cells, did not.
It was found that a protein present in embryonic heart cells but not the other cells - connexin 43 - was the key.
clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk 