Washington, Aug 14 - Although open-heart surgery is a frequent treatment for heart disease, it remains extremely dangerous. But an injected protein can potentially regrow blood vessels in the human heart -- doing away with risky surgery altogether.

In heart disease, blood vessels are either clogged or die off, starving the heart of oxygen and leaving it highly susceptible to a cardiac attack.

Britta Hardy and her research partner Alexander Battler, professors at Tel Aviv University's (TAU) Sackler School of Medicine, have shown that an injected protein can potentially regrow blood vessels in the human heart -- doing away with risky surgery altogether.

These new vessels in the heart could give millions of people around the world a new lease on life.

'The biotechnology behind our human-based protein therapy is very complicated, but the goal is simple and the solution is straightforward,' said Hardy.