Fibroblasts inform the heart: control of cardiomyocyte cycling and size by age-dependent paracrine signals.
Within the developing and adult heart, the fibroblast is often dismissed as merely a structural element, important just to mechanical integrity or to scarring when excessive in disease. Ieda et al. in this issue of Developmental Cell now report an essential program of paracrine factor production in cardiac fibroblasts that controls heart muscle cell growth, driving cycling or enlargement depending on the fibroblasts' developmental stage.
Noseda
Michela
M
Schneider
Michael D
MD
D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning; D002465:Cell Movement; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D015509:Developmental Biology / Q000379:methods; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D066257:Heparin-binding EGF-like Growth Factor; D006801:Humans; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D019899:Paracrine Communication
C587883:HBEGF protein, human; D066257:Heparin-binding EGF-like Growth Factor; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins