The mammalian heart is generated from two groups of progenitor cells termed first and second heart field cells. These cells give rise to the different cell types that make up the heart. The way in which these more specialized cell types emerge remains not entirely understood. In order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of these two groups of progenitors, HSCI Principal Faculty members Ken Chien, MD, PhD, Kit Parker, PhD, and fellow researchers used a two-colored fluorescent reporter system to identify and isolate the two progenitor cell populations and use genome profiling techniques to define the molecular differences between the two groups. They published these findings recently in the journal Science along with their discovery of a ventricular heart muscle progenitor lineage. These advances represent significant gains in our understanding of heart progenitor cell differentiation and learning how distinct cell types in the heart are formed.

Domian, I.J., Chiravuri, M., van der Meer, P., Feinberg, A.W., Shi, X., Shao, Y., Wu, S.M., Parker, K.K., Chien, K.R. (2009). Generation of functional ventricular heart muscle from mouse ventricular progenitor cells. Science 326, 426-9