'Zombie cells' in the placenta may cause heart failure in pregnancy

"Zombie cells" lurking in the placenta may underpin a type of heart failure that strikes in late pregnancy or shortly after birth, a new study finds.

These undead cells point to potential ways to treat the poorly understood condition, known as (PPCM), which weakens the heart so it can't pump blood as efficiently.

"We do believe that there may be a link here," first study author Dr. Jason Roh, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, told Live Science in an email.

It's well established that preeclampsia is a risk factor for this type of heart failure, but in recent years, emerging evidence has suggested that the two conditions may actually share underlying causes.

The idea is that, in mothers with a genetic risk, these conditions are "unmasked by certain factors released into the blood during late pregnancy," said senior study author Dr. Anthony Rosenzweig, a professor of medicine at the University of Michigan and the director of the Stanley and Judith Frankel Institute for Heart and Brain Health.

"While these experiments [provide] exciting proof-of-concept validation for the role of these pathways," Rosenzweig said, "the safety and efficacy of this approach needs to be rigorously assessed in clinical studies."