Detection of cell-cycling cardiac muscle cells by visualizing Geminin, and regeneration of cardiac muscle cells

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K15018
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: General anatomy (including histology/embryology)
• Research Institution: Hiroshima University
• Principal Investigator: Takihara Yoshihiro 広島大学, 原爆放射線医科学研究所, 教授 (60226967)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 心筋 / 細胞周期 / 幹細胞 / ポリコーム遺伝子群 / Geminin

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Polycomb-group (PcG) genes play an important role in cardiac development as well as in maintenance of cardiac muscle. Molecularly PcG genes regulate gene transcription through an epigenetic mechanism and also act as an E3 ubiquitin ligase for Geminin, which regulates cellular proliferation and differentiation. In this study we generated Geminin-EYFP knock-in mice to directly trace Geminin expression in vivo and detected a candidate for cell-cycling cardiac muscle or cardiac stem cells. We also generated cell-penetrating Geminin, which is transduced directly into cells, to manipulate expression levels of Geminin protein in cells. We anticipate that these technologies are helpful for analyzing cell cycling of cardiac muscle and also function of cardiac stem cells.

Free Research Field

幹細胞生物学　再生医学