Single-cell expression analyses of embryonic cardiac progenitor cells

Abstract

For this decade, heart development has been extensively elucidated by the introduction of the concepts of "heart fields" and "cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs)". It is believed that multipotent CPCs are specified among the most anterior part of lateral plate mesoderm as belonging to the two anatomical fields; the first heart field (FHF), which is the future left ventricle and atria, and the second heart field (SHF), which is the future right ventricle and outflow tract of the heart. However, the paradigm of two heart fields dependent on conventional marker genes is still disputed, so the existence of independent CPCs specific to each HF remains an open question. In addition, the molecular mechanism underlying the specification of CPCs remains largely unknown. A single-cell transcriptomic approach, which is realized by the recent advances in molecular biology, can be one of the solutions to bring some breakthrough in this subject.