Single-cell gene profiling during early cardiomyogenesis in mice

在实验室中产生心脏细胞对于科学研究和临床治疗都非常有用。这些细胞不仅是目前用于心脏研究的动物的良好替代品，而且还是治疗心力衰竭患者的宝贵材料，心力衰竭是英国人民的主要杀手。然而，为了实现这一目标，有必要进一步了解心脏细胞在出生前如何在我们体内发育。这项研究旨在揭示胚胎中正在转变为心脏细胞的特定细胞（心脏细胞前体）的特征（？基因谱？）。由于先前可用方法的技术限制，这一非常重要的信息尚未获得，因为此类细胞的数量极少。这项研究将通过结合最先进的技术来解决这些困难。在实验中，将在显微镜下从胚胎中分离并收集单个感兴趣的细胞，并使用新建立的分子生物学方法扩增细胞中包含的基因，以使基因的量足以进行评估。然后，将使用最新的、功能极其强大的分析仪来评估每个细胞的扩增基因表达。获得的数据将提供一系列关于心脏细胞如何在体内发育的新的重要知识，这反过来又将建议如何在实验室中从干细胞产生心脏细胞。此外，这些信息可能为新研究打开一扇大门。通过应用本研究中获得的信息，我们也许能够从患者自身的细胞（例如皮肤细胞）中产生心脏细胞。因此，该研究项目将非常有助于医学科学的进步和心力衰竭新疗法的开发。

Generation of heart cells in the laboratory is very useful in both scientific research and clinical therapy. These cells are not only a good alternative to animals which are currently used for heart research but also are a valuable material for treating patients with heart failure, which is a major killer to the UK people. However, in order to achieve this goal, it is essential to further understand how heart cells develop in our body before birth.This study aims to unveil characteristics (?gene profiles?) of specific cells (heart cell precursors) in the embryo which are changing to heart cells. This very important information has not been achieved due to technical limitations of previously-available methods because such cells are extremely small in number. This study will solve such difficulties by using a combination of state-of-the art technologies. In the experiment, a single individual cell of interest will be isolated and collected from embryo under microscope, and the genes included in the cell will be amplified using a newly-established molecular biological method so that the amount of the genes become sufficient for assessment. Then, amplified gene expression of each cell will be assessed by using the latest, extremely powerful analyser. The data obtained will provide a range of new important knowledge regarding how heart cells are developed in the body, which will in turn suggests how to produce heart cells from stem cells in the laboratory. Moreover, this information may open a door to new research. We may be able to generate heart cells from patient?s own cells such as skin cells by applying the information obtained in this study. Thus this research project will gratefully contribute to the progress in medical science and to development of new therapies for heart failure.