UCLA scientists use color-coded tags to discover how heart cells develop

UCLA researchers used fluorescent colored proteins to trace how cardiomyocytes — cells in heart muscle that enable it to pump blood — are produced in mouse embryos. The findings could eventually lead to methods for regenerating heart tissue in human adults.The research was published in the journal Nature Communications.“Our ultimate goal is to be able to regenerate cardiomyocytes after an injury like a heart attack,” said Dr. Reza Ardehali, an associate professor of medicine in UCLA’s division of cardiology and a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. “But we’re first trying to learn from the embryonic heart.”Cardiomyocytes make up most of the heart. During a heart attack, parts of the heart tissue are cut off from oxygen and nutrients. Cells in those regions of the heart die and are slowly replaced by scar tissue, which reduces the heart ’s capacity to function.While it has been known that cardiomyocytes are formed during embryonic development, scientists have been unsure until now whether new cardiomyoctyes are only created when existing cardiomyocytes divide, or whether cardiac progenitor cells — a type of stem cell — create new cardiomyocytes.Ardehali and his colleagues, including Ngoc Nguyen, a UCLA graduate student and the study ’s co-first author, used four different fluorescent-colored proteins to determine the origin of cardiomyocytes. When the cells divide, the resulting “daughte...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news