Fetal myocardium in the kidney capsule: an in vivo model of repopulation of myocytes by bone marrow cells.

ABSTRACT: Debate surrounds the question of whether the heart is a post-mitotic organ in part due to the lack of an in vivo model in which myocytes are able to actively regenerate. The current study describes the first such mouse model--a fetal myocardial environment grafted into the adult kidney capsule. Here it is used to test whether cells descended from bone marrow can regenerate cardiac myocytes. One week after receiving the fetal heart grafts, recipients were lethally irradiated and transplanted with marrow from green fluorescent protein (GFP)-expressing C57Bl/6J (B6) donors using normal B6 recipients and fetal donors. Levels of myocyte regeneration from GFP marrow within both fetal myocardium and adult hearts of recipients were evaluated histologically. Fetal myocardium transplants had rich ne

SUBMITTER: Zhang EY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3285614 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature