ANTERIOR HEART FIELD CELLS AND CARDIAC MESOANGIOBLASTS: INSIGHTS FOR CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE

Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) represent major non-infectious cause of death in children. Cardiac anormalities are often attributable to mutations in developmental control genes of the Recently in the applicants lab, clones of stem cells, called mesoangioblasts, and isolated from vessels, have been obtained. Unfortunately these cells do not become cardiac cells very efficiently. However the applicant has isolated three mesoangioblast clones from embryonic heart and they show a significant increase in becoming cardiac cells. Considering that mice with labeledregion of the heart have been characterized and applicants experience, aims of this project are:1) to obtain mesoangioblasts clones from different regionsof the embryonic heart, i.e., from right ventricle, from left ventricle or from the atria.2) To identify region-specific genes and characterize them.These things will open new perspectives for possible targets of therapy