DNA control region is needed for normal heart development in mice
Mouse experiments found that deleting the region reduced a gene’s activity and disrupted heart muscle, valve and coronary blood vessel development.
Limit: The experiments measured embryonic heart development, not regeneration in adult or aging hearts
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
In mice, researchers used gene editing to delete a DNA control region and examined how embryos’ hearts developed. They studied epicardial epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, a process in which cells in the heart’s outer layer become more mobile. This process supports heart muscle growth and coronary blood vessel formation.
The team combined measurements of gene activity with maps of how regulatory proteins interacted with DNA. They identified a heart-specific control region within Wt1, a gene involved in heart development. Deleting it reduced the gene’s activity. It also caused incomplete compaction of heart muscle, defects in the walls separating heart chambers, abnormal valve development and disrupted coronary blood vessel patterns. The researchers concluded that the region was essential for normal heart development.
Why it matters
In adult mammals, this developmental cell change becomes markedly restricted, limiting regenerative capacity. Understanding its controls may inform strategies aimed at reactivating it for heart repair.
Caveats
The mouse experiments assessed embryonic heart development, not regeneration in adult or aging hearts. The conference abstract did not report sample sizes.
- WT1
- Chromatin and 3D genome organization
- Epigenetic regulation of gene expression
- Abnormal valvulogenesis
- Disrupted coronary patterning
- Mice
The paper
King's College London; Institute of Developmental and Regenerative Medicine
ESC Congress 2026 Abstract, Oct 26, 2026
Presented at ESC Congress 2026
