Cardiac neural crest stem cells

Abstract

Whereas the heart itself is of mesodermal origin, components of the cardiac outflow tract are formed by the neural crest, an ectodermal derivative that gives rise to the peripheral nervous system, endocrine cells, melanocytes of the skin and internal organs, and connective tissue, bone, and cartilage of the face and ventral neck, among other tissues. Cardiac neural crest cells participate in the septation of the cardiac outflow tract into aorta and pulmonary artery. The migratory cardiac neural crest consists of stem cells, fate-restricted cells, and cells that are committed to the smooth muscle cell lineage. During their migration within the posterior branchial arches, the developmental potentials of pluripotent neural crest cells become restricted. Conversely, neural crest stem cells persist at many locations, including in the cardiac outflow tract. Many aspects of neural crest cell differentiation are driven by growth factor action. Neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) and its preferred receptor, TrkC, play important roles not only in nervous system development and function, but also in cardiac development as deletion of these genes causes outflow tract malformations. In vitro clonal analysis has shown a premature commitment of cardiac neural crest stem cells in TrkC null mice and a perturbed morphology of the endothelial tube. Norepinephrine transporter (NET) function promotes the differentiation of neural crest stem cells into noradrenergic neurons. Surprisingly, many diverse nonneuronal embryonic tissues, in particular in the cardiovascular system, express NET also. It will be of interest to determine whether norepinephrine transport plays a role also in cardiovascular development. Anat Rec Part A 276A: 34 -42, 2004.

Cardiac Stem Cells and Mechanisms of Myocardial Regeneration

“…For example, retinoic acid reduces the number of prenatal cardiac progenitors leading to a hypoplastic heart (232). Heart morphogenesis is a complex process that results from the assembly of subsets of myocardial cells that exert contractile function but express different genes (432,440,520). Initially, the hypothesis was advanced that distinct unipotent progenitors give rise to the myocytes that populate the different parts of the heart (310).…”

Introduction to Neural Stem Cells

“…23,24 In addition to CNS (brain and spinal cord) neural stem cells, a distinct population (or populations) of stem cells exists that forms neural crest-derived elements, including neurons, Schwann cells, smooth muscle cells and pigmented epithelium. 25,26 These neural crest stem cells may ultimately be derived from CNS stem cells, but have numerous properties that distinguish the 2 populations. Neural crest stem cells will not be considered further in this brief review.…”

“…Cells derived from the bone marrow, 74 skin, 75 teeth 76 and heart, 26 for example, have been demonstrated to give rise to neurons or, at least, cells with many of the characteristics of neurons. It is possible, therefore, that tissue other than the CNS may ultimately prove to be as effective and more readily accessible than CNS stem cells.…”

Autophagy in Cardiac Development

“…A subset of epicardial cells invade into the myocardium via EMT and develop into fibroblast and coronary smooth muscle cells (Icardo et al 1996, Moorman & Christoffels. 2003, Sieber-Blum et al 2004). …”