Tracing the developmental origin of postnatal cardiomyogenic progenitor cells

New research attempts to elucidate the origin of cells involved in postnatal cardiomyogenesis A new research piece from Yuan-Hung Liu et al. at National Taiwan University Hospital has attempted to trace the developmental origin of Nkx2.5 enhancer-expressing cells. Demonstrating that these cells were able to differentiate into striated cardiomyocytes in vitro and in vivo, they also showed that the number of Nkx2.5-eGFP+ cells increased post-myocardial infarction, and that these cells originate from embryonic epicardial cells. The authors hope that this study will aid research into cell therapies for cardiac regeneration, and will help further our understanding of cardiovascular diseases.You can...