Journal of Stem Cell Research & Therapy

Do the valve endocardial progenitors originate from a single zebrafish blastula HPRG1+ cell?

7^th Annual Conference on Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine

August 04-05, 2016 Manchester, UK

Xiushan Wu

Hunan Normal University, China

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Stem Cell Res Ther

Abstract:

The arguments regarding the origin of the endocardial progenitors remain unresolved. Here, we have identified a gene, tentatively named HPRG1 (heart progenitor regulation gene 1), through a large-scale screen of Drosophila mutants. The gene is expressed in heart valves in zebrafish and its expression pattern is conserved in mice. Knockdown of the gene resulted in a valve defect, suggesting it is involved in endocardial valve development. It is known that Isl1 or GATA4 positive cells are capable of differentiating into two cell types, endocardial and cardial progenitors and NKx2.5 is the direct activator of endocardial master regulator Etv2. Our results indicated that HPRG1 is expressed in a novel type of mesodermal progenitor cells that are co-expressed with each master regulators and HPRG1 activates the expressions of GATA4 and NKx2.5 and inhibits the expression of Isl1. It is especially interesting that HPRG1 determines the fate of a single cell of the 128-cells at zebrafish blastula stage, suggesting that it is a fate-determining gene. Thus, the HPRG1 positive blastula cells provide an appropriate experimental system for exploring the specification mechanism of the endocardial progenitors. A mechanism for heart valve progenitor specification beginning with HPRG1 through GATA4, Isl1 and NKx2.5 is under investigation.

Biography :

Xiushan Wu has obtained his PhD in Genetics from Stockholm University in 1990 and Postdoctoral studies in Developmental Biology at Michigan University during 1990-1994. He did his research as a Scientist in Molecular Genetics at Karolinska Institute in 1994-2000. He is a Professor and Director of The Center for Heart Development, Deputy Director of the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education of China for Developmental Biology and Protein Chemistry at Hunan Normal University, China. His research focuses on understanding the mechanisms by which embryonic heart is developed using Drosophila, zebrafish and mice as models. He has published more than 300 papers including over 100 papers in international journals.

Email: xiushanwu2003@aliyun.com