The work is being carried out by researchers at the UNC School of Medicine, and could have a substantial impact on the development of future treatments for broken hearts. Researchers have found a way to reprogram scar tissue cells (fibroblasts) to become healthy heart muscle cells. The study was published in the journal Cell Stem Cell (cardiomyocytes) Researchers are looking into possibly treating or one day curing cardiac disease.
They used a gene activity-controlling protein called Ascl1, which is well recognised to be an essential protein for converting fibroblasts into neurons. Researchers hope to use this technique to give patients injections to transform harmful cells into helpful ones. Fibroblast over-activity underlies many major diseases and conditions including heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, liver disease, kidney disease and the scar-like brain damage that occurs after a stroke. “Reprogramming fibroblasts has long been one of the important goals in the field of stem cell therapy,” Qian says. A team of researchers led by Professor Yingying Qian has developed a way to reprogram mice fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes, liver cells, and neurons. Qian’s team studied the variations in gene activity patterns and variables that control gene activity during these three separate reprogrammings. A team of researchers has discovered that converting fibroblasts into neurons activated genes related to cardiomyocytes. Ascl1, one of the master-programmer “transcription factor” proteins, was the cause of this activation. They were shocked to see that it significantly increased reprogramming efficiency by more than ten times.
Group Media Publications
Entertainment News Platforms – anyflix.in
Construction Infrastructure and Mining News Platform – https://cimreviews.com/
General News Platform – https://ihtlive.com/
Legal and Laws News Platforms – https://legalmatters.in/
Podcast Platforms – https://anyfm.in/
