Telomerase is essential for zebrafish heart regeneration

Unlike human hearts, zebrafish hearts efficiently regenerate after injury. Regeneration is driven by the strong proliferation response of its cardiomyocytes to injury. In this study, we show that active telomerase is required for cardiomyocyte proliferation and full organ recovery, supporting the potential of telomerase therapy as a means of stimulating cell proliferation upon myocardial infarction. Overall design: Heart transcriptomes of WT and telomerase defective adult zebrafish animals were profiled by RNASeq, in control conditions and 3 days after heart cryoinjury.