Characterization of neural crest cells migrating into the heart

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26670396
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Cardiovascular medicine
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: KURIHARA Hiroki 東京大学, 大学院医学系研究科, 教授 (20221947)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): WADA Youichiro 東京大学, アイソトープ総合センター, 教授 (10322033) ; TOMITA Sachiko ヤマザキ学園大学, 動物看護学部, 教授 (40231451) ; KURIHARA Yukiko 東京大学, 大学院医学系研究科, 講師 (80345040)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 循環器 / 分子心臓学 / 発生・分化 / 幹細胞

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we investigated the origin and fate of neural crest cells migrating into the heart through experiments using mouse and avian embryos. We found that cells originating from the preotic region of the neural crest, as well as “cardiac neural crest cells” derived from the more caudal post-otic region, migrate into the heart and differentiate into various cell types including coronary artery smooth muscle cells and mesenchymal cells in the semiluminal valves and myocardial walls. Single-cell analysis of gene expression patterns revealed the existence of a subset of neural crest cells expressing some stem cell markers (e.g. c-Kit), indicating the maintenance of the stemness with multipotency in a neural crest population within the heart.

Free Research Field

発生学・循環器内科学・血管生物学