The post‐natal heart contains a myocardial stem cell population

FEBS Letters

Lobe, Corrinne G²  Seale, Patrick¹  Megeney, Lynn A¹  Hierlihy, Andrée M¹  Rudnicki, Michael A¹ 

[1] Ottawa Health Research Institute, Molecular Medicine Program and Centre for Stem Cell and Gene Therapy, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada;Cancer Research Division, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, Toronto, Canada

关键词: Cardiac;    Stem cell;    Myocyte-enhancing factor 2C;    Fusion;   

DOI  :  10.1016/S0014-5793(02)03477-4

学科分类：生物化学/生物物理

来源: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

【 摘 要 】

The recent identification of stem cell pools in a variety of unexpected tissue sources has raised the possibility that a pluripotent stem cell population may reside in the myocardium and contribute to the post-natal growth of this tissue. Here, we demonstrate that the post-natal myocardium contains a resident verapamil-sensitive side population (SP), with stem cell-like activity. When growth of the post-natal heart was attenuated through over-expression of a dominant negative cardiac transcription factor (MEF2C), the resident SP cell population was subject to activation, followed by a consequent depletion. In addition, cardiac SP cells are capable of fusion with other cell types, but do not adopt the corresponding gene expression profile. These observations suggest that a responsive stem cell pool resides in the adult myocardium, and may influence adaptation of the post-natal heart.

【 授权许可】

Unknown