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The institute helped pay for the research by [Piero Anversa]'s group in Valhalla and at the University of Udine and the University of Trieste in Italy. [Claude J. Lenfant] said the findings eventually could have 'enormous public health value' if they led to new therapies that delayed the onset of heart failure and prolonged life. Lenfant also said that he believed Anversa's research holds greater promise for heart disease than gene therapy, which many experts consider a highly promising route to new therapies. Anversa said he never believed that the heart was an exception to the rule that cell regeneration is essential to life. Nor did he believe, as the dogma held, that scarring after heart attacks was evidence against the heart's ability to make new cells. Other organs, like the skin, constantly grow new cells to replace old and damaged ones and still leave scars, Anversa said. Anversa began this line of research 20 years ago. In its latest version his team compared muscle cells in the hearts of 13 patients who died four to 12 days after a large heart attack with those in the hearts of 10 patients who died from other causes. Anversa's team focused attention on two areas -- the zone of tissue bordering the site of a heart attack and from a more distant area of the heart

Johns Hopkins has suspended the study. Its goal was to determine how the airways in the lungs of non-asthmatic individuals stay open even when irritating chemicals are inhaled. Participants were given two drugs, methacholine and hexamethonium, to determine their effect on the airways

The Web site posting came a day after the Office for Human Research Protections, responding to a Freedom of Information request filed by The New York Times, released letters it had received from Johns Hopkins officials. Ethicists and asthma experts not affiliated with Johns Hopkins have criticized the university for releasing only sketchy details of the experiment. Rod Kelley, a spokesman for Sigma-Aldrich, said that his company's hexamethonium was not generally intended for human use and that he could not immediately find any record that Johns Hopkins had been provided human-grade material. Joann Rodgers, a spokeswoman for Johns Hopkins, called it ''standard practice'' to use chemicals labeled not intended for human use if they had received F.D.A. approval for experimental testing, as was the case for hexamethonium

A healthy volunteer died recently after inhaling a drug in a federally financed asthma study conducted by Johns Hopkins University, officials said Thursday. The volunteer's hospitalization after inhaling the drug led the institution to suspend the research

The letters sketch a picture of an experiment that went amiss, beginning 24 hours after the volunteer inhaled hexamethonium. On May 7, the volunteer reported dry cough, shortness of breath on exertion, muscular aches and fever. Two days later, the volunteer was admitted to the hospital, and doctors were concerned about a possible reaction to the drug. ''This obviously qualifies as a serious adverse event,'' Dr. Alkis Togias, one of the study researchers, wrote in a letter dated May 9. In a letter to the federal office dated May 17, Dr. Chi V. Dang, vice dean for research at Hopkins, said that the study had been suspended and that the volunteer remained hospitalized. Dr. Dang noted that before entering the experiment, the volunteer had undergone extensive tests, including those for lung function, and had been found healthy. Dr. Dang wrote that Hopkins was asking a laboratory to test the hexamethonium, which, he wrote, the manufacturer had said was 99.6 percent pure. (The letter did not identify the manufacturer.) Dr. Dang also said tests were being conducted on equipment used in the experiment and to determine whether the volunteer had come down with a a viral infection

Dr. Claude J. Lenfant, the director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, said that [Piero Anversa]'s findings 'provide the most dramatic and clear-cut demonstration to date of heart cell regeneration after cardiac injury.' The findings, Lenfant said, add to those from studies on animals that show the dogma that the heart cannot regenerate 'is no longer true.' The institute, a federal agency in Bethesda, Md., helped pay for the research by Anversa's group in Valhalla and at the University of Udine and the University of Trieste in Italy. Lenfant said the findings eventually could have 'enormous public health value' if they led to new therapies that delayed the onset of heart failure and prolonged life

[Piero Anversa] said he never believed that the heart was an exception to the rule that cell regeneration is essential to life. Nor did he believe, as the dogma held, that scarring after heart attacks was evidence against the heart's ability to make new cells. Other organs, like the skin, constantly grow new cells to replace old and damaged ones and still leave scars, Anversa said. Dr. Claude Lenfant, director of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute said that Anversa's findings 'provide the most dramatic and clear-cut demonstration to date of heart-cell regeneration after cardiac injury.' Anversa's findings add to those from studies on animals that show the dogma that the heart cannot regenerate 'is no longer true,' said Lenfant whose federal agency in Bethesda, Md., paid for the research that was conducted in Vallhala, at the University of Udine and University of Trieste in Italy

Dr. [Piero Anversa] said he never believed that the heart was an exception to the rule that cell regeneration was essential to life. Nor did he believe, as the dogma held, that scarring after heart attacks was evidence against the heart's ability to make new cells. Other organs, like the skin, constantly grow new cells to replace old and damaged ones and still leave scars, Dr. Anversa said. Dr. Anversa began this line of research 20 years ago. In its latest version, his team compared muscle cells in the hearts of 13 patients who died 4 to 12 days after a large heart attack with those in the hearts of 10 patients who died from other causes. Dr. Anversa's team focused on two areas -- the zone of tissue bordering the site of a heart attack and a more distant area of the heart. The findings still leave researchers seeking answers to a number of crucial questions about the origin of the new heart muscle cells Dr. Anversa identified. Were they cells in the heart that had been awakened after sleeping for years, even decades, only by the crisis of a heart attack? Or were the cells recruited from another site in the body in response to the heart attack?

[Piero Anversa] said he never believed that the heart was an exception to the rule that cell regeneration is essential to life. Nor did he believe, as the dogma held, that scarring after heart attacks was evidence against the heart's ability to make new cells. Other organs, like the skin, constantly grow new cells to replace old and damaged ones and still leave scars, Anversa said. Anversa began this line of research 20 years ago. In its latest version his team compared muscle cells in the hearts of 13 patients who died four to 12 days after a large heart attack with those in the hearts of 10 patients who died from other causes. Anversa's team focused attention on two areas -- the zone of tissue bordering the site of a heart attack and from a more distant area of the heart. The findings still leave researchers seeking answers to a number of crucial questions about the origin of the new heart muscle cells Anversa identified. Were they cells in the heart that had been awakened after sleeping for years, even decades, only by the crisis of a heart attack? Or were the cells recruited from another site in the body in response to the heart attack?