Question: How can fish regenerate their heart?

Cristina Villa del Campo answered on 13 Nov 2015:

Hi phguan,

We are still studying that! There must be something that they have that is different to us (besides the scales). I think in general it is assumed that their heart muscle cells are a little bit different to ours, a little bit less “specialised” if you want so they can still divide. You can compare them to the ones in a mammalian embryo, that can still divide. That way, if you cut the tip of a fish heart it can grow back (it takes them almost a month).
There are other things that are different but we are still studying it so maybe one day we can have heart cells more similar to the fish!