UCSD team discovers cardiac progenitor cells

Cardiac progenitor cells are precursor cells that can divide a number of times and develop into mature heart cells. Until now they were thought to be absent after birth, but the researchers discovered that a small number remain in the heart, though this number declines with age.

And according to the researchers, cardiac progenitor cells have one considerable advantage over stem cells: scientists can easily coax them into becoming fully specialized heart-muscle cells, without chemical or hormonal stimuli.

In the future, doctors might be able to capture and grow progenitor cells and then transplant them back into the patient's heart. For now, however, isolating substantial numbers of these special cells remains a technical challenge.

read
more: read