生物谷報道：美國科學家近日在《自然》（Nature）雜志上發(fā)表研究報告指出,，發(fā)現了一組可培植心肌細胞的干細胞,。帶領這項研究的科學家正是華人William Pu,。
美國麻省波士頓兒童醫(yī)院的研究人員表示,，新發(fā)現的干細胞位于心臟最外層的心外膜,，或能修復已受損害的心臟組織,。William Pu稱：“當病人心臟出現問題時,，便會失去驅動心跳的心肌細胞,。唯一的補救方法就是制造更多這類細胞。”
據悉,，研究人員是在偶然的情況下發(fā)現新干細胞的,。他們當時正在研究心外膜的另一組基因，所以要在活老鼠的胚胎上,，用紅色熒光蛋白復合體標簽特定的細胞,。出乎意料之外，他們竟然目睹心外膜細胞轉化成心肌細胞,。William Pu的研究成果顯示,，用基因編號為“Wt1”的干細胞能制造出心肌細胞、滑肌細胞及內皮細胞,。（生物谷www.bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原始出處：
Nature,，doi:10.1038/nature07060，Bin Zhou,，William T. Pu
Epicardial progenitors contribute to the cardiomyocyte lineage in the developing heart
Bin Zhou1,2, Qing Ma1,2, Satish Rajagopal1,2, Sean M. Wu3, Ibrahim Domian3, José Rivera-Feliciano2, Dawei Jiang1, Alexander von Gise1,2,4, Sadakatsu Ikeda1,2, Kenneth R. Chien3 & William T. Pu1,2
Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Department of Cardiology, Children's Hospital Boston, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Harvard University and Cardiovascular Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, 185 Cambridge Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA
Clinic of Neonatology, Charité Campus Mitte, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Chariteplatz 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Correspondence to: William T. Pu1,2 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to W.T.P. (Email: [email protected]).
The heart is formed from cardiogenic progenitors expressing the transcription factors Nkx2-5 and Isl1 (refs 1 and 2). These multipotent progenitors give rise to cardiomyocyte, smooth muscle and endothelial cells, the major lineages of the mature heart3, 4. Here we identify a novel cardiogenic precursor marked by expression of the transcription factor Wt1 and located within the epicardium—an epithelial sheet overlying the heart. During normal murine heart development, a subset of these Wt1+ precursors differentiated into fully functional cardiomyocytes. Wt1+ proepicardial cells arose from progenitors that express Nkx2-5 and Isl1, suggesting that they share a developmental origin with multipotent Nkx2-5 + and Isl1 + progenitors. These results identify Wt1+ epicardial cells as previously unrecognized cardiomyocyte progenitors, and lay the foundation for future efforts to harness the cardiogenic potential of these progenitors for cardiac regeneration and repair.
