Benoit G . Bruneau and

Finding a niche for cardiac precursors

Within an embryo, a region next to the developing heart provides a niche where cardiac precursor cells can increase in number before they contribute to the development of this organ.

B Faculty

The heart's Da Vinci code: a Renaissance at Keystone.

At a recent Keystone symposium on "Molecular Pathways in Cardiac Development and Disease" in Colorado, significant advances in the understanding of heart development were discussed. The identification and isolation of cardiovascular progenitors, their modulation by secreted factors, and some tantalizing insights into cardiac regeneration were some of the highlights of what was characterized by ...

ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling during mammalian development.

Precise gene expression ensures proper stem and progenitor cell differentiation, lineage commitment and organogenesis during mammalian development. ATP-dependent chromatin-remodeling complexes utilize the energy from ATP hydrolysis to reorganize chromatin and, hence, regulate gene expression. These complexes contain diverse subunits that together provide a multitude of functions, from early emb...

09-P017 Molecular mechanism of chamber formation in the vertebrate hearts

maintained through a tuned balance between proliferation and cell death. This equilibrium is genetically controlled but little is known about the molecules involved in this process. We have found evidences that oct4 controls the proliferative balance within the AER cells. Overexpression of otc4 in the limb ectoderm disrupts the ratio cell death/proliferation and this activity is under the contr...