A new, faster and easier method has been developed to obtain heart muscle cells from adult mouse fibroblasts present in the skin, according to US researchers. Their work has been published in the journal Nature Cell Biology.
Scientists have long searched for a good source of cells from which to grow contracting heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) for research into various heart diseases. Skin cells are the perfect candidate – they can be easily harvested from patients. Moreover, since the heart of mammals does not have significant regenerative abilities, a good method of obtaining cardiomyocytes in the future could be used in transplantology.
Sheng Ding and colleagues from The Scripps Research Institute simplified and shortened the already known method of reprogramming fibroblasts – so far, they were first brought to the state of undifferentiated stem cells by incorporating special regulatory genes in them. The obtained undifferentiated cells were then placed in a special medium that contained the necessary factors for differentiation into the desired cell type.
This time, the researchers placed the fibroblasts immediately in the medium that contained the necessary factors for differentiation into cardiomyocytes, and briefly turned on the activity of reprogramming genes in the fibroblasts. The result was spontaneously contracting myocardial cells, ideal for studying the basis of heart disease in the laboratory. (PAP)