However, the scar tissue doesn't have the elasticity and flexibility of healthy heart muscle, meaning there can be complications with pumping and transporting blood.Preclinical studies in rats have found that a single injection of tropoelastin into the wall of the heart in the days following a heart attack could "turn back the clock" on muscle damage, making the scars "stretchier" and help improve the heart's ability to contract."This research showcases the potential of tropoelastin in heart repair and suggest further work will show exciting possibilities of its role in future treatments and therapies," says lead researcher Dr. Robert Hume, who conducted the research at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research.Additional experiments on human cardiac fibroblasts (a subset of human heart cells responsible for maintaining the structure of a normal heart) in a petri dish showed that after the cells were treated with tropoelastin, they were able to generate elastin, a crucial protein that gives human tissue elasticity and the ability to stretch."We hope to continue developing the method so it can eventually be used in a clinical setting and used to treat and improve the lives of the millions of heart failure patients worldwide.""