Class II histone deacetylases (HDAC4, HDAC5, HDAC7 and HDAC9) have been shown to interact with myocyte enhancer factors 2 (MEF2s) and play an important role in the repression of cardiac hypertrophy. We examined the role of HDACs during the differentiation of P19 embryonic carcinoma stem cells into cardiomyocytes. Treatment of aggregated P19 cells with the HDAC inhibitor trichostatin A induced t...

Results from lineage tracing studies indicate that precursor cells in the ventricles give rise to both cardiac muscle and conduction cells. Cardiac conduction cells are specialized cells responsible for orchestrating the rhythmic contractions of the heart. Here, we show that Notch signaling plays an important role in the differentiation of cardiac muscle and conduction cell lineages in the vent...

A growing number of studies are reporting the isolation of cardiac stem cells from a variety of tissue sources and examining their effects on promoting the repair of the injured heart. In the current issue of PLoS Biology, the storyline takes an unexpected, interesting twist, as Neal Epstein and his colleagues report the isolation of a novel cell type from skeletal muscle that can adopt a highl...

Antibodies were prepared against the SDS-denatured 10-nm filament protein 'skeletin' extracted from chicken gizzard. The specificity of the antibody to the 10-nm filament protein was shown by immunodiffusion before and after purification of the protein on SDS gels by the enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay (ELISA) and by its specific absorption with purified skeletin. In immunofluorescence (whe...

In various kinds of cultured cells, it has been reported that the membrane potential exhibits fluctuations with long-term correlations, although the underlying mechanism remains to be elucidated. A cardiac muscle cell culture serves as an excellent experimental system to investigate this phenomenon because timings of excitations can be determined over an extended time period in a noninvasive ma...

All cells have a difference in voltage across the cell membrane. This is the so-called membrane potential. Some cells, such as neurons and muscle cells, use the membrane potential as a signal. In that case, a cell may be stimulated by application of a small current during a short time period. If the current is sufficiently strong, the membrane potential goes through a large excursion, which is ...