日前，斯克里普斯研究所和美国加州大学圣地亚哥分校的科学家通过研究发现，皮肤细胞可以直接转换成心脏细胞，这一转换依靠一种细胞重组因子完成，这一因子通常被用在胚胎样干细胞制作上。过去，科学家们曾经在实验室里将老鼠的皮肤细胞还原成干细胞，然后再转变为心脏细胞。

新的研究成果加快了新心脏细胞形成的过程，整个转变过程只需要5~6天，而以前的研究则需要花费几个星期将皮肤细胞转变成胚胎样状态，然后再需要更多的时间将其转变为心脏细胞。

皮肤细胞直接转变为心脏细胞，可用于患者自己的皮肤细胞制造的心脏移植手术或帮助修复心脏病发作引起的伤害。此外，科学家还想运用这样的细胞来研究某些遗传的心脏病或其他器官的疾病。（生物谷Bioon.com）

生物谷推荐原文出处：

Nature Cell Biology doi:10.1038/ncb2164

Conversion of mouse fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes using a direct reprogramming strategy

Jem A. Efe,1 Simon Hilcove,1 Janghwan Kim,1 Hongyan Zhou,1 Kunfu Ouyang,2 Gang Wang,2 Ju Chen2 & Sheng Ding1

Here we show that conventional reprogramming towards pluripotency through overexpression of Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc can be shortcut and directed towards cardiogenesis in a fast and efficient manner. With as little as 4 days of transgenic expression of these factors, mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) can be directly reprogrammed to spontaneously contracting patches of differentiated cardiomyocytes over a period of 11–12 days. Several lines of evidence suggest that a pluripotent intermediate is not involved. Our method represents a unique strategy that allows a transient, plastic developmental state established early in reprogramming to effectively function as a cellular transdifferentiation platform, the use of which could extend beyond cardiogenesis. Our study has potentially wide-ranging implications for induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-factor-based reprogramming and broadens the existing paradigm.