The diversity of the human heart

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Research and development into potential treatments and cures of various forms of heart damage and disease through stem cell research has shown scientists around the world that heart stem cells and tissues are not all the same.

Researchers at the Carolina Cardiovascular Biology Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have determined that heart cells are not all created with the same "universal signal". Says researcher Dr. Cam Patterson, Director of the Cardiovascular Biology Center, "Not only does it tell us about how stem cells differentiate to create the heart, but it provides us with knowledge that may very well help us to repair heart muscle after a heart attack."

To determine this, genetic materials were manipulated by researchers so that cells would not create a gene that has been associated with stem cell differentiation in fruit flies. Without this gene, subsets of cells in tissues remained in a state of a development, while others did not. The outer walls of the heart’s ventricles were then used as a site for growing the developed cells. Findings suggest the potential of transplanting specific cells into the injured area of heart attack-damaged muscle tissues to create healthy tissues.

Frank Conlon, assistant professor of genetics in the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, says, "There appear to be a least two types of progenitors and we think there may be many more." Research continues to identify other genes to determine the number of heart cell progenitors in existence.

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