Identification of a Molecule That Restores Injured Myocardium

Before myocardium lost from ischemic (and other) injury can be repaired, a new blood supply to the injured area must be created. Various approaches using gene therapy and stem-cell therapy have shown promise but produced no breakthroughs. Earlier studies have found that thymosin β4 (Tβ4) helps minimize the loss of cardiac myocytes, but it has not been clear how. (Tβ4 is a protein that regulates the actin cytoskeleton and thereby affects certain basic cell processes.)

Now, a multi-institutional team has demonstrated that, in mice, Tβ4 (and a molecule that it increases called AcSDKP) stimulates adult epicardial cells to form blood vessels (including arterioles as well as capillaries). Tβ4 stimulates all components of an arteriole: fibroblasts,…