Mononuclear Diploidy at the Heart of Cardiomyocyte Proliferation

Abstract

Reporting in Nature Genetics, Patterson et al. (2017) show that adult mammalian hearts possess an innate capacity to regenerate, which depends on a small population of mononuclear diploid cardiomyocytes. These cells undergo karyokinesis and cytokinesis, raising the possibility that endogenous cardiac muscle cells can be stimulated to proliferate for myocardial repair.