Embryonic blood vessels also make heart muscle cells

Studies have been made in the university of California in Los Angeles that the thin layer of cellslining the interior of blood vessels, where blood stem cells are made may become cardiomyocytes, or heart muscle cells instead just by the absence of a single transcription factor, which is Scl. When Scl is removed it converts a hematopoietic organ into a cardiogenic organ. It turns that Scl tells the other genes in the endothelium what to do and when.

This findings opens new possibilities of potential source of cardiac stem cells, which could help us treat heart attacks by creating new heart muscle cells to replace those that were damaged.

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/28131