Muscle Cell News Volume 2.35 | Oct 23 2017

TOP STORY

Saving Hearts after a Heart Attack: Overexpression of a Cell-Cycle Activator Gene Enhances Repair of Dead Heart Muscle

Scientists report a significant advance in efforts to repair a damaged heart after a heart attack, using grafted heart-muscle cells to create a repair patch. The key was overexpressing a gene that activates the cell-cycle of the grafted muscle cells, so they grow and divide more than control grafted cells. [Press release from the University of Alabama at Birmingham discussing online prepublication in Circulation Research] Press Release | Abstract

(Ranked by impact factor of the journal)

CARDIAC MUSCLE CELLS

Modeling Torsade de Pointes Arrhythmias In Vitro in 3D Human iPS Cell-Engineered Heart Tissue

Investigators present an in vitro Torsade de Pointes model using 3D cardiac tissue sheets that contain a mixture of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes and non-myocytes. [Nat Commun] Full Article

MiR-31a-5p Promotes Postnatal Cardiomyocyte Proliferation by Targeting RhoBTB1

Researchers investigated the miRNAs responsible for postnatal cardiomyocyte proliferation and their downstream targets. [Exp Mol Med] Full Article

Functional Expression and Pharmaceutical Efficacy of Cardiac-Specific Ion Channels in Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes

For evaluation of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes for cardiotoxicity test, human embryonic stem cells were differentiated to cardiomyocytes, followed by metabolic selection to enrich the differentiated cardiomyocytes. [Sci Rep] Full Article

SKELETAL MUSCLE CELLS

Reducing Sarcolipin Expression Mitigates Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and Associated Cardiomyopathy in Mice

Scientists showed that reducing sarcolipin levels ameliorates dystrophic pathology in the severe dystrophin/utrophin double mutant (mdx:utr^−/−) mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. [Nat Commun] Full Article

Skeletal Muscle Regenerative Potential of Human MuStem Cells Following Transplantation into Injured Mice Muscle

Investigators report that allogeneic Muscle-Derived Stem Cells (MuStem) cells reside in human skeletal muscle and display long-term ability to proliferate allowing to generate clinically relevant amount of cells. [Mol Ther] Abstract

A Skeletal Muscle Model of Infantile-Onset Pompe Disease with Patient-Specific iPS Cells

Researchers generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from patients with infantile-onset Pompe disease (IOPD) and differentiated them into myocytes. They demonstrated that mammalian/mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 activity was impaired in IOPD iPSC-derived myocytes. [Sci Rep] Full Article

SMOOTH MUSCLE CELLS

Lactate Promotes Synthetic Phenotype in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells

Scientists determined whether lactate, which increases in response to regional ischemia, may promote the synthetic phenotype in vascular smooth-muscle cells. [Circ Res] Abstract

The Effects of Anti-Hypertensive Drugs and the Mechanism of Hypertension in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell-Specific ATP2B1 Knockout Mice

The authors investigated whether lack of the ATP2B1 gene causes a higher response to calcium channel blockers (CCBs) than to other types of anti-hypertensive drugs. Vascular smooth muscle cell ATP2B1 KO mice had a higher response to CCBs for blood pressure-lowering effects than other anti-hypertensive drugs. [Hypertens Res] Full Article

Balance of Cardiac and Systemic Hepcidin and Its Role in Heart Physiology and Pathology

The author dissects the role of cardiac hepcidin in cellular homeostasis. This review is complemented with examination of the role of systemic hepcidin in heart disease and its use as a biochemical marker. [Lab Invest] Abstract

Single-Cell Sequencing Technologies for Cardiac Stem Cell Studies

The authors highlight the recent progresses in single-cell sequencing analysis technologies and their applications in cardiac stem cells research. [Stem Cells Dev] Abstract

Visit our reviews page to see a complete list of reviews in the muscle cell research field.

MDC Receives Funding to Collaborate on Human Cell Atlas

The Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin is participating as a research partner in the Human Cell Atlas (HCA). The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has announced that it will provide financial support for the HCA’s sub-project “Towards a Human Cardiac Cell Atlas.” [Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association] Press Release

BrainStorm Expands Its Patent Portfolio to Include a New US Patent For Its NurOwn^® Technology for Parkinson’s Disease And ALS

BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. announced that it has received Notice of Allowance from the United States Patent Office. The allowed claims cover methods of treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease using mesenchymal stem cells that secrete neurotrophic factors, including glial derived neurotrophic factor. [BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc.] Press Release

Iranian Scholar Sentenced to Death

A judge in Tehran has ordered the death penalty for Iranian researcher Ahmadreza Djalali, according to his wife and diplomatic sources in Italy. Djalali is affiliated with the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and the University of Eastern Piedmont in Novara, Italy. A resident of Sweden with his family, Djalali was arrested in April 2016 on an academic visit to Tehran and accused of “collaboration with a hostile government”. He works on improving hospitals’ emergency responses to armed terrorism and radiological, chemical and biological threats. [Nature News] Editorial

In Brazil, Researchers Struggle to Fend Off Deepening Budget Cuts

With time and money running out, Brazilian scientists are turning up the pressure on the federal government to avoid a total collapse of the national science and technology funding system before the end of the year. Researchers delivered a petition with more than 82,000 signatures to congressional leaders in Brasília, demanding the reversal of deep budget cuts that have left research institutions struggling to pay even basic water and electricity bills.” [ScienceInsider] Editorial

Rand Paul Takes a Poke at U.S. Peer Review Panels

Senate Republicans have launched a new attack on peer review by proposing changes to how the U.S. government funds basic research. [ScienceInsider] Editorial

NEW 6^th Utrecht Stem Cell Conference – Regenerative Medicine Cardiology
February 16, 2018
Utrecht, Netherlands

Visit our events page to see a complete list of events in the community.

NEW Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Skeletal Muscle Biology (Weill Cornell Medical College)

NEW Multiple Positions – Cardiovascular Research (Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research)

NEW Postdoctoral Position – Biomicrofluidics and Organ-on-a-Chip Research (University of Toronto)

Postdoctoral Position – Myotonic Dystrophy (Vitalité Health Network)

Postdoctoral Trainee – Cardiovascular Biology and Regenerative Medicine (Albert Einstein College of Medicine)

Postdoctorate Research Associate – Cell-Mediated Cardiac Tissue Regeneration (Nova Southeastern University Cell Therapy Institute)

Postdoctoral Fellow – Smooth Muscle Biology (Boston Children’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School)

Research Assistant – Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (University of Oxford)

Assistant Professor – Musculoskeletal Biology (University of Alabama)

Postdoctoral Associate – Skeletal Muscle Differentiation (University of Minnesota)

Postdoctoral Research Positions – Molecular and Integrative Biology of Heart and Muscle (University of Minnesota Medical School)

Faculty Positions – Cardiovascular Biology (Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation)

Researcher – Skeletal Tissue Engineering (KU Leuven)

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