Successful rebuilding after disaster, even in the heart, starts with infrastructure

Mammalian heart regeneration has been the subject of intense debate and investigation among cardiovascular scientists for more than a century (1). While it is now widely accepted that the mammalian heart does have the capacity for self-renewal, replacement of injured tissue with new cardiomyocytes happens at a very low rate in the adult heart, and is not sufficient for the recovery of cardiac function after massive loss of cells (2).