生物谷报道：美国科学家近日在《自然》（Nature）杂志上发表研究报告指出，发现了一组可培植心肌细胞的干细胞。带领这项研究的科学家正是华人William Pu。
美国麻省波士顿儿童医院的研究人员表示，新发现的干细胞位于心脏最外层的心外膜，或能修复已受损害的心脏组织。William Pu称：“当病人心脏出现问题时，便会失去驱动心跳的心肌细胞。唯一的补救方法就是制造更多这类细胞。”
据悉，研究人员是在偶然的情况下发现新干细胞的。他们当时正在研究心外膜的另一组基因，所以要在活老鼠的胚胎上，用红色荧光蛋白复合体标签特定的细胞。出乎意料之外，他们竟然目睹心外膜细胞转化成心肌细胞。William Pu的研究成果显示，用基因编号为“Wt1”的干细胞能制造出心肌细胞、滑肌细胞及内皮细胞。（生物谷www.bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Nature，doi:10.1038/nature07060，Bin Zhou，William T. Pu
Epicardial progenitors contribute to the cardiomyocyte lineage in the developing heart
Bin Zhou1,2, Qing Ma1,2, Satish Rajagopal1,2, Sean M. Wu3, Ibrahim Domian3, José Rivera-Feliciano2, Dawei Jiang1, Alexander von Gise1,2,4, Sadakatsu Ikeda1,2, Kenneth R. Chien3 & William T. Pu1,2
Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Department of Cardiology, Children's Hospital Boston, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Harvard University and Cardiovascular Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, 185 Cambridge Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA
Clinic of Neonatology, Charité Campus Mitte, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Chariteplatz 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Correspondence to: William T. Pu1,2 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to W.T.P. (Email: wpu@enders.tch.harvard.edu).
The heart is formed from cardiogenic progenitors expressing the transcription factors Nkx2-5 and Isl1 (refs 1 and 2). These multipotent progenitors give rise to cardiomyocyte, smooth muscle and endothelial cells, the major lineages of the mature heart3, 4. Here we identify a novel cardiogenic precursor marked by expression of the transcription factor Wt1 and located within the epicardium—an epithelial sheet overlying the heart. During normal murine heart development, a subset of these Wt1+ precursors differentiated into fully functional cardiomyocytes. Wt1+ proepicardial cells arose from progenitors that express Nkx2-5 and Isl1, suggesting that they share a developmental origin with multipotent Nkx2-5 + and Isl1 + progenitors. These results identify Wt1+ epicardial cells as previously unrecognized cardiomyocyte progenitors, and lay the foundation for future efforts to harness the cardiogenic potential of these progenitors for cardiac regeneration and repair.
