As pointed as it is, each new step taken in understanding the construction of the heart, the first organ formed during embryonic development, is necessarily valuable. In this area, under the direction of Pr Cédric Blanpain, researchers from the Stem Cells and Cancer Laboratory of the Free University of Brussels in collaboration with the team of Dr Fabienne Lescroart, from the Inserm Center for Medical Genetics of Marseille unit in Aix-Marseille University, have just signed a new publication in the journal Nature Cell Biology.
The heart is derived from different populations of cardiac progenitors, expressing Mesp1, the gene that acts as a conductor in the cardiac specification and differentiation of these progenitor cells. In their work, Belgian and French researchers have defined “the mechanisms by which Mesp1 was able to bind to DNA and induce the reorganization of key regions of the genome, to allow the regulation of the expression of genes important in the specification and differentiation of cardiac progenitors“.
Towards new therapeutic strategies
For Professor Blanpain, “Understanding the molecular characteristics and mechanisms associated with the early specification of cardiac progenitors to the different types of cardiac cells will be important in the future to develop new therapeutic strategies. One could thus instruct a cardiac progenitor to adopt a defined cardiac or vascular fate that could be used for cell therapy purposes for heart disease.“.
The study should help to better understand congenital cardiomyopathies. “It clearly appears that these genes are involved in very early stages of cardiac development and that a defect during these critical stages can lead to congenital heart defects.“, adds Dr. Fabienne Lescroart.