Cardiac muscle fibers of the hummingbird and finch have no transverse tubules and are smaller in diameter than those of mammalian hearts . The fibers are connected by intercalated discs which are composed of desmosomes and f. adherentes ; small nexuses are often interspersed . As in cardiac muscle of several other animals, the junctional SR of the couplings is highly structured in these two bir...

The expression of two intermediate filament-associated proteins, paranemin (280,000 mol wt) and synemin (230,000 mol wt), was investigated with respect to the expression of two core intermediate filament proteins, desmin and vimentin, in various embryonic and adult chicken muscle and nonmuscle cells. All developing muscle cells, regardless of their type, simultaneously express desmin, vimentin,...

Transcription factor Lbx1 is known to play a role in the migration of muscle progenitor cells in limb buds and also in neuronal determination processes. In addition, involvement of Lbx1 in cardiac neural crest-related cardiogenesis was postulated. Here, we used mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells which have the capacity to develop into cells of all three primary germ layers. During in vitro differe...

Identifying a bona fide population of cardiac stem cells (CSCs) is a critical step for developing cell-based therapies for heart failure patients. Previously, cardiac c-kit(+) cells were reported to be CSCs with a potential to become myocardial, endothelial and smooth muscle cells in vitro and after cardiac injury. Here we provide further insights into the nature of cardiac c-kit(+) cells. By t...

About 50 years ago, the satellite cell was discovered through electron microscopic inspection of skeletal muscle. Satellite cells are mono-nucleated and located in the edge of the skeletal myofibers. These cells were imposed for their association with muscle regeneration. Satellite cells maintain dormant state in the mature muscle and are activated mitotically during muscle injuries, and finall...

Dried oleander leaves at single lethal dose of 110 mg/kg body weight were administered orally to fivenative female goats. Clinical signs of toxicosis in goats began to appear about 1 hr after receiving theoleander and included abdominal pain, ruminal atony and tympany, frequent urination, bradycardia,tachycardia, tachyarrhythmia, depression, weakness and convulsive movement and death at the end...

Cardiac muscle engineering aims at providing functional myocardium to repair diseased hearts and model cardiac development, physiology, and disease in vitro. Several enabling technologies have been established over the past 10 years to create functional myocardium. Although none of the presently employed technologies yields a perfect match of natural heart muscle, it can be anticipated that hum...

Stem cells (SCs) have special potency to differentiate into different types of cells, especially cardiomyocytes. In order to demonstrate the therapeutic applications of these cells, various investigations are recently being developed. Cardiac progenitor cells are endogenous cardiac SCs that found to express tyrosine kinase receptors, c-Kit and other stemness features in adult heart, contributin...

Cell transplantation for myocardial repair has emerged as a promising therapy for patients with heart failure. Recent in vitro and in vivo animal studies have suggested the potential of different cell types to differentiate into tissues required for cardiac repair namely endothelial cells and cardiomyocytes. In this review, we will focus on the potential of adult stem cells obtained from adult ...