Nature子刊：刘一为/张浩/聂宇合作证实，减轻心脏负荷，可重启成年心脏再生

TL;DR - A Nature Cardiovascular Research paper (Aug 5, 2026) from Shanghai Children's Medical Center (Zhang Hao / Liu Yiwei) and Fuwai Hospital (Nie Yu) shows that mechanically unloading the adult heart reawakens cardiomyocyte proliferation via an epicardial NRG1–ERBB4–STAT3 axis, offering a mechanistic rationale for why ventricular assist devices (VADs) sometimes restore cardiac function. Note: this item is biomedical research with no AI/ML component beyond standard sequencing analysis.

• Using a heterotopic (non-working) heart transplant model, mechanical unloading induced adult cardiomyocyte proliferation, confirmed by Ki67 staining and MADM dual-label lineage tracing; applied to infarcted hearts it also promoted regeneration in the peri-infarct zone.
• Single-nucleus RNA sequencing of unloaded hearts revealed enhanced epicardium-to-cardiomyocyte communication through the NRG1–ERBB4–STAT3 signaling axis.
• Epicardial Nrg1 knockout abolished STAT3 activation and blocked cardiomyocyte proliferation, establishing the pathway as required rather than merely correlated.
• CUT&Tag showed STAT3 directly upregulates H6pd, boosting pentose phosphate pathway flux to supply nucleotides and reducing equivalents for cell-cycle re-entry — linking mechanotransduction to metabolic remodeling.