Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 4, 2026

A System for Culturing Iris Pigment Epithelial Cells to Study Lens Regeneration in Newt
Published on: June 22, 2011
A conserved HH-Gli1-Mycn network regulates heart regeneration from newt to human
Bhairab N Singh1, Naoko Koyano-Nakagawa1, Wuming Gong1
1Lillehei Heart Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA.
Abstract:
The mammalian heart has a limited regenerative capacity and typically progresses to heart failure following injury. Here, we defined a hedgehog (HH)-Gli1-Mycn network for cardiomyocyte proliferation and heart regeneration from amphibians to mammals. Using a genome-wide screen, we verified that HH signaling was essential for heart regeneration in the injured newt. Next, pharmacological and genetic loss- and gain-of-function of HH signaling demonstrated the essential requirement for HH signaling in the neonatal, adolescent, and adult mouse heart regeneration, and in the proliferation of hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes. Fate-mapping and molecular biological studies revealed that HH signaling, via a HH-Gli1-Mycn network, contributed to heart regeneration by inducing proliferation of pre-existing cardiomyocytes and not by de novo cardiomyogenesis. Further, Mycn mRNA transfection experiments recapitulated the effects of HH signaling and promoted adult cardiomyocyte proliferation. These studies defined an evolutionarily conserved function of HH signaling that may serve as a platform for human regenerative therapies.
Related Concept Videos
Conservation of Small Populations
What is Conservation Biology?
Regulation of Heart Rates
The SNS increases heart rate through the release of norepinephrine and epinephrine, which act on beta-1 adrenergic receptors in the heart. This action increases the rate of depolarization in the sinoatrial (SA) node, the heart's...
Conservation of Protein Domains Over Different Proteins
A limited set of protein domains often duplicate and recombine during evolution. These domains can be organized in different combinations to...
Conserved Binding Sites
Binding sites are often located in large pockets, and if their location on a protein’s surface is unknown, it can be predicted using various approaches. The energetic method computationally...
Protein Networks
These interactions can be represented through maps depicting protein-protein interaction networks, represented as nodes and edges. Nodes are circles that are representative of a protein,...

