The Regenerative Capacity of Mammalian Heart Muscle.

King in 1940, in this journal, described appearances that he believed to be those of myocardial regeneration in a case where death had occurred four days after a stab wound of the chest. A review of the literature, however, shows the opinion most generally held is that hyperplasia of cardiac muscle does not occur. Another consideration prompted the present study: Le Gros Clark (1946) showed that considerable regeneration of skeletal muscle took place in the rabbit following experimental injury. It therefore seemed desirable that the regenerative power of the rabbit myocardium should be studied.