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Bridget M. Kuehn

JAMA. 2005;293:1434-1435.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

New cardiac progenitor cells found in the hearts of neonate humans, rats, and mice provide evidence of the heart’s regenerative potential.

The discovery was reported in the February 10 issue of Nature by a multi-institution group of US and German researchers (Laugwitz et al. Nature. 2005;433:647-653). According to the report, the cells are precursors of cardiac muscle cells that can be multiplied into millions of cells in vitro. These cells also appear to form fully differentiated functioning cardiac muscle cells in the presence of other heart cells.

Human cardiac progenitor cells (arrowheads) were found in a part of the atrial septum that is routinely discarded during surgeries to correct heart defects in neonates. (Photo credit: Peter J. Gruber, MD, PhD.)

Previous studies have identified cardiac stem cells and cardiac precursor cells in humans (Beltrami et al. Cell. 2003;114:763-776, Messina et al. Circ Res. 2004;95:911-921). Attempts . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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