New source of heart stem cells found: study

Paris, June 22 : Researchers in the United States have discovered a new group of stem cells that can give rise to heart muscle cells, known as cardiomyocytes, according to a study published on Sunday.

The stem cells are located in the outermost layer of the heart and could one day play a critical role in regenerating injured heart tissue, the researchers say. “In heart failure, you lose cardiomyocytes, so the only way to reverse heart failure is to make more of these cells,” said William Pu, the study’s lead researcher. The new findings come on the heels of two earlier breakthroughs.

In 2006 scientists identified another cardiac stem cell — marked by the expression of a gene called Nkx2-5 — with the potential to become either heart muscle or cells lining blood vessels in the organ’s left-sided chambers.

Gene expression is the process by which information encoded in the DNA of a particular gene is transformed into a protein or RNA, which plays a key role in protein synthesis.

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