This little fish knows the magic of healing the human heart!

This little fish knows the magic of healing the human heart!

As if the magician knows this fish in our paddy field, in the canal, in the pond, in the river. Many people know the name of the fish. The name of this fish is Zebra Fish, which is known as Anju fish in Bengal. You will be amazed at its power. This zebra fish is found mainly in rural Bengal and rivers, ponds and canals in north-east India. 

The finger-shaped and striped spider can regenerate almost all parts of its body, including the brain, heart, liver, pancreas, and spinal cord, even humans and mammals.

Under the supervision of Chinmoy Patra, a scientist in the Department of Developmental Biology, Agarkar Research Institute, Pune, India, Devanjan Mukherjee and his colleagues have come up with this life-saving mantra to revive our weakened heart. Debanjan is now a researcher at the Institute for Cardiovascular Regeneration at the Goethe University in Frankfurt.

This is the first time in the world that a 10-member research team, including Chinmoy and Devanjan, has shown how a special gene can help a zebra fish to regenerate a damaged heart ('myocardial injury'). The name of the gene is 'Connective Tissue Growth Factor (CTGF)'. Another name for the gene is 'Cellular Communication Network Factor 2-A'.

This study was the first to explain why after a heart attack we never get our heart back to its previous state and after a third heart attack our death became inevitable. And why is it that a zebrafish's heart can be rejuvenated after being repeatedly injured, much like a new heart?

The study was published in the international scientific journal Development, published in the United Kingdom. Devanjan, the lead researcher, worked under the supervision of Associate Professor Chinmoy Patra of the Department of Developmental Biology, Agarkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune. The Max Planck Institute for Heart and Long Research in Germany and the Medical Center at Duke University in Durham, USA have also collaborated.

Why was the zebra fish chosen in the study?

Zebrafish usually survive for 2 to 3 years. So after 3 months of age, this fish becomes an adult. Researchers have done this with at least 6-month-old zebra fish. Those were adult zebra fish. Since the incidence and risk of heart attack is higher in adults than in children, more so in the elderly, researchers have worked with adult zebra fish.

One of the advantages of working with zebra fish is that from 10-15 days after birth, all parts of the body, including their heart, liver and pancreas, develop and their function can be visualized from the outside. How the heart valves are formed can also be seen, even at the cell level. Another advantage is that most of the functional genes in zebrafish (many genes in animals or plants do not work) are very similar to those in humans and rats. Research on this 'magician' fish of rural Bengal started abroad from the 6th century of the last century. Now there are about 1 thousand in the world