Editor's Summary
6 August 2009
Muscle cell fate and plasticity
Two microRNAs, miR-145 and miR-143, have been shown to be present in multipotent cardiac progenitor cells in the mouse embryo. miR-145 is necessary for myocardin-induced reprogramming of adult fibroblasts into smooth muscle cells, and sufficient to induce differentiation of neural crest stem cells into vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Together, miR-145 and miR-143 target a network of transcription factors to promote differentiation and repress proliferation of smooth muscle cells. These findings provide evidence that miRNAs can act as switches to direct cells to a specific differentiated lineage. In addition, the role of miR-145 and miR-143 in regulating the differentiated versus proliferative phenotype of VSMCs may be relevant in many vascular diseases, as VSMC oscillation between these two states contributes to vascular occlusion.
Article: miR-145 and miR-143 regulate smooth muscle cell fate and plasticity
Kimberly R. Cordes, Neil T. Sheehy, Mark P. White, Emily C. Berry, Sarah U. Morton, Alecia N. Muth, Ting-Hein Lee, Joseph M. Miano, Kathryn N. Ivey & Deepak Srivastava
doi:10.1038/nature08195
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (817K) | Supplementary information
