Highly Purified Hematopoietic Stem Cell Can Generate Cardiomyocytes Via Myeloid Progenitors Through Cell Fusion.

[Introduction] Recent reports demonstrating the ability of bone marrow (BM) cells to regenerate cardiomyocytes have prompted clinical as well as basic studies for the treatment of ischemic and non-ischemic cardiomyopathies. However, the responsible BM cells and underlying mechanism of regeneration remain unclear. In this study, we checked the cardiomyogenic potential of BM cells in vivo, to identify the cell populations in BM that possess the capacity to give rise to cardiomyocytes and clarify whether cardiomyogenic potential of BM-derived cells require cell fusion with host cardiomyocytes.