progenitor cells

(University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee) A completely novel approach to analyzing time-lapse images of live stem cell behaviors has yielded a tool for successfully predicting outcomes of stem and progenitor cells.

It will allow scientists to search for mechanisms that control stem cell specialization, the main obstacle in advancing the use of stem cell therapy for treatment of disease.

Using zebrafish, researchers have identified and described an enzyme inhibitor that increases the number of cardiac progenitor cells and influences the size of the developing heart.

The task was accomplished primarily because of the powerful advantages of studying embryonic development in zebrafish, vertebrates whose transparent embryos develop rapidly, are small and easy to handle and, most importantly, grow outside of the mother.

(University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences) Using zebrafish, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have identified and described in Nature Chemical Biology an enzyme inhibitor that increases the number of cardiac progenitor cells and influences the size of the developing heart.

The task was accomplished primarily because of the powerful advantages of studying embryonic development in zebrafish, vertebrates whose transparent embryos develop rapidly, are small and easy to handle and, most importantly, grow outside of the mother.