Keerat Kaur
New York Medical College, USA
Title: Characterizing the benefits of pharmacological treatments for promoting the regenerative capacity of cardiac progenitor cells
Biography
Biography: Keerat Kaur
Abstract
Stem cell therapy has been widely used in attempts to repair and regenerate the diseased heart. Since the heart does contain endogenous cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs), heart tissue itself has served as a stem cell source for cardiac repair. Impediments in using CPCs for treating human patients are that the cells are present in low numbers within the heart and require heart biopsies, which may not be efficacious for severely diseased individuals. Two major objectives in optimizing the therapeutic utility of CPCs are to enhance their cardiac regenerative capacity and expand their numbers without sacrificing their cardiac competency. Our laboratory has focused on utilizing pharmacological approaches for promoting the myocardial potential of adult stem cells. Two of the drugs we have investigated are the DNA demethylation reagent 5-azacytidine and the G9a histone methyltransferase inhibitor BIX01294.