Efficient and safe reprogramming of fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes with Sendai viral vectors

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25670394
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Cardiovascular medicine
• Research Institution: Keio University
• Principal Investigator: Ieda Masaki 慶應義塾大学, 医学部, 講師 (70296557)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 心臓 / 再生

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Heart disease remains a leading cause of death worldwide, and new therapies are highly demanded. As cardiomyocytes are terminally differentiated cells, regenerative therapy has emerged as an attractive approach for the treatment of heart failure. Direct cardiac reprogramming approach might be a powerful strategy toward this treatment. We reported that a combination of three cardiac-specific transcription factors, Gata4, Mef2c, and Tbx5 (GMT), could directly reprogram fibroblasts into cardiomyocyte-like cells in vitro and in vivo. The aim of this study is to develop new Sendai viral vectors (SeVs) which overexpress reprogramming factors without genomic integration, and to determine the efficiency and safety of cardiac reprograming with SeVs. We generated SeVs vectors containing GMT and found that the vector could efficiently reprogram mouse fibroblasts inot cardiomyocyte-like cells in vitro.

Free Research Field

医歯薬学