Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found out that mouse embryonic stem cell can be put to work building the heart. Thus the study can be considered as a major significant step to a new generation of treatments that use human stem cells.

Researchers said that the Mesp1 gene locks mouse embryonic stem cells into becoming heart parts and gets them moving to the area where the heart forms. Researchers are now testing if stem cells exposed to Mesp1 can help fix damaged mouse hearts. The lead author of the study Kenneth Murphy, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology and immunology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator says,

“This isn’t the only gene we’ll need to get stem cells to repair damaged hearts, but it’s a key piece of the puzzle. This gene is like the first domino in a chain: the Mesp1 protein activates genes that make other important proteins, and these in turn activate other genes and so on. The end result of these falling genetic dominoes is your whole cardiovascular system.”

It is worthwhile to add that the Embryonic stem cells have always been a favorite among the researchers because of their potential to become almost any specialized cell type. It enables the scientists to use the stem cell to create new tissue for treatment of a wide range of diseases and injuries. But first they have to learn how to coax them into becoming specialized tissue types such as nerve cells, skin cells or heart cells.

Using mouse embryonic stem cells, Murphy’s lab showed that Mesp1 starts the development of the cardiovascular system. They learned the gene’s protein helps generate an embryonic cell layer known as the mesoderm, from which the heart, blood and other tissues develop. In addition, Mesp1 triggers the creation of a type of cell embryologists recently recognized as the heart’s precursor.

The team of the researchers also found that stem cells exposed to the Mesp1 protein are locked into becoming one of three cardiovascular cell types: endothelial cells, which line the interior of blood vessels; smooth muscle cells, which are part of the walls of arteries and veins; or cardiac cells, which make up the heart.

Source: Science Daily