New Heart Progenitors Found

Scientists already know that the heart is formed from cardiogenic progenitors expressing the transcription factors Nkx2-5 and Isl1. These progenitors are multipotent - they can give rise to heart and smooth muscle and to endothelial cells. William Pu and colleagues show that a new type of cardiac progenitor, marked by the transcription factor Wt1, resides in certain heart and pre-heart tissue. During normal heart development a subset of these precursors differentiate into fully functional heart muscle, and they arise from Wt1 progenitors that express both Nkx2-5 and Isl1. This suggests that they share a developmental origin with other multipotent progenitors and could help researchers to identify a new pool of heart stem cells.

Author contact:

William Pu (Children's Hospital Boston, MA, USA)
E-mail: wpu@enders.tch.harvard.edu

Abstract available online.

(C) Nature press release.

Message posted by: Trevor M. D'Souza