Scientists had long thought organs such as the heart, brain and pancreas were unable to regenerate after being formed, though they obviously grow in size. They could create new cells but lacked stores of heart- or brain-specific stem cells, the thinking went. This theory was largely based on the fact that it is very difficult to recover lost function if those organs are damaged by illness or injury.

The researchers now postulate that the heart does in fact have stem cells, and that these may be harnessed for therapeutic treatments.

For instance, the finding could help doctors design treatments for the damage caused by heart attacks, which was previously thought to be irreversible.

Overall, it is starting to look like the body has a lot more potential for regeneration than doctors had suspected.