There might be new ways to fix damaged hearts, regeneration lost tissue by restoring a primordial ability and one by turning structural heart cells into beating cells.

Researchers said that human application was far and more research was needed before they could do it on humans.

And rather than resorting to transplants or artificial devices, it may be possible that in a patient’s body broken organs can be repaired.

Stem cell researchers know that by adding three or four genes and to take them back to an embryonic-like state, they can reprogram these ordinary cells.

Dr. Masaki Ieda and colleagues took this approach a step further and found that an immature cell could turn into a beating heart cell or cardiomyocyte by genes in a developing embryo.

Gata4, Mef2c, and Tbx5 were the three genes used by experts to convert mouse heart fibroblasts.

Ieda, now at the Keio University School of Medicine in Japan, said, "Scientists have tried for 20 years to convert nonmuscle cells into heart muscle, but it turns out we just needed the right combination of genes at the right dose."