WIKIPEDIA, REGENTS OF UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MEDICAL SCHOOLCells in the heart expressing the marker cKit were once thought to be the key to cardiac regeneration. These cardiac precursors, researchers found, could proliferate—opening up the opportunity for a way to regrow an organ that until this century was thought incapable of regeneration.
But even as positive results shook out of an early stage clinical trial, a shadow moved in over cKit+ cells, with several labs producing data questioning their reparative powers. Skepticism culminated with a report in 2014 showing that cKit+ cells in mice very rarely produce new heart muscle cells, or cardiomyocytes. The story of cKit+ cells, said Joshua Hare of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, “is a very controversial one.”
In the latest development in the cKit+ saga, published this month (October 5) in PNAS, Hare’s team found that cKit+ cells readily become cardiac muscle cells in vitro, as long as the right cellular conditions are present. This could perhaps explain why other groups haven’t seen cKit+ cells becoming cardiomyocytes in vivo ...
