Insights into the characteristics of mammalian cardiomyocyte terminal differentiation shown through the study of mice with a dysfunctional c-kit.
Mammalian cardiomyocytes withdraw from the cell cycle soon after birth. This process is called terminal differentiation. The c-kit, a receptor tyrosine kinase, is expressed on cardiomyocytes immediately after birth but for only a few days. In mice with genetic c-kit dysfunction, adult cardiomyocytes are phenotypically indistinguishable from those of wild type mice, except that they are capable of proliferation in vivo after acute pressure overload. This review explores the idea that postnatal cardiomyocyte differentiation and cell cycle withdrawal are distinct processes and that terminal differentiation may not simply be due to altered expression of genes that regulate the cell cycle but could involve c-kit induced epigenetic change.
Naqvi
Nawazish
N
Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, 101 Woodruff Circle, 319 Woodruff Memorial Research Building, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Li
Ming
M
Yahiro
Eiji
E
Graham
Robert M
RM
Husain
Ahsan
A
D000818:Animals; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D008322:Mammals / Q000196:embryology / Q000254:growth & development*; D051379:Mice; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000502:physiology*; D019009:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
D019009:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit