Nature：可培植心肌细胞的干细胞
（来源：Bin Zhou）
生物谷报道：美国科学家近日在《自然》（Nature）杂志上发表研究报告指出，发现了一组可培植心肌细胞的干细胞。带领这项研究的科学家正是华人William Pu。
美国麻省波士顿儿童医院的研究人员表示，新发现的干细胞位于心脏最外层的心外膜，或能修复已受损害的心脏组织。William Pu称：“当病人心脏出现问题时，便会失去驱动心跳的心肌细胞。唯一的补救方法就是制造更多这类细胞。”
据悉，研究人员是在偶然的情况下发现新干细胞的。他们当时正在研究心外膜的另一组基因，所以要在活老鼠的胚胎上，用红色荧光蛋白复合体标签特定的细胞。出乎意料之外，他们竟然目睹心外膜细胞转化成心肌细胞。William Pu的研究成果显示，用基因编号为“Wt1”的干细胞能制造出心肌细胞、滑肌细胞及内皮细胞。（生物谷www.bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
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: wpu@enders.tch.harvard.edu).
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.
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