The
Cardiomyopathy
Association

Researchers have been looking at why many women with cardiomyopathy brought on by pregnancy make a better recovery than any other group of heart failure patients.

The condition, called peripartum cardiomyopathy, affects women in the months before childbirth or soon afterwards. Many affected women suffer weakening of the heart muscle but can make a full recovery.

Now a team of researchers from Mt Sinai School of Medicine at the Cardiovascular Institute in New York think they may know why.
 
The researchers have demonstrated that when a pregnant mouse suffers new heart problems in pregnancy, cells from her unborn can migrate to her heart. Once there they can become different types of cardiac cells, aiding her heart’s regenerative processes.

The embryos' stem cells had differentiated into various types of heart tissue, including cardiomyocytes, the rhythmically contracting muscle cells that produce a heartbeat.

According to the researchers, whose findings are published in the latest issue of The American Heart Association’s Circulation Research, their findings may help explain not only the rapid recovery of patients with peripartum cardiomyopathy, but also why researchers have previously discovered cells containing Y-chromosomes (ie male cells) in the hearts of women who had previously given birth to boys.

The researchers concluded that fetal to maternal stem cell transfer appears to be a critical mechanism in the maternal response to cardiac injury.  They said they had also identified cells for potential use in cardiovascular regenerative therapy.

Debra's account of how she made a full recovery from peripartum cardiomyopathy