MONDAY, April 14 (HealthDay News) -- Not all heart cells are
created by the same universal signal, a discovery that could lead
to future treatments for congenital heart disease and heart
attacks, U.S researchers say.
Experiments conducted on frogs challenge long-held beliefs that
the stem cells that eventually develop into the heart's muscle
tissue do so in reaction to the same cue.
"Not only does it tell us about how stem cells differentiate to
create the heart, but it provides us with knowledge that may very
well help us to repair heart muscle after a heart attack,"
researcher Dr. Cam Patterson, director of the Carolina
Cardiovascular Biology Center at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, said in a prepared statement.
The study was published online in the April 14 issue of the
journal
Developmental Cell and in the April 15 print edition.
The researchers manipulated genetic material in frog embryos so
their cells would not produce a gene known as CASTOR, which had
been linked to stem cell differentiation in the fruit fly.
Without CASTOR present, a small subset of cells at the base of
an embryo's heart remained in a state of infancy while others
developed. These infant cells, or progenitors, were later found to
have developed into the outer walls of the heart's ventricles if
they were allowed to progress normally.
This finding affects theories about the possibility of
transplanting progenitor cells into the damaged area of the organ,
such as heart-attack scarred muscle, in hope of creating healthy
tissue. The theory supposes that all progenitors are the same.
"What we have found is that this belief simply isn't true,"
study senior author Frank Conlon, assistant professor of genetics
in the UNC School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement.
"Instead, there appear to be at least two types of progenitors, and
we think there may be many more."
Conlon is now attempting to manipulate other genes in addition
to CASTOR to determine how many types of heart cell progenitors
exist. He hopes to verify his findings other animal models before
searching for genetic counterparts in humans.
More information
The American Heart Association has more about
common cardiovascular diseases.
