Thymosin beta 4 can transform adult epicardial stem cells into functional heart muscle

RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: RGRX) ("the Company" or "RegeneRx") has announced that thymosin beta 4 (Tβ4) can activate a unique subpopulation of resident adult epicardial stem cells such that they recapture embryonic potential, proliferate, migrate and differentiate into functional heart muscle (cardiomyocytes), according to a research paper published online today in Nature. The study animals treated with Tβ4 prior to injury had increased activation of these resident stem cells that functionally integrated into new heart muscle, suggesting that these cells needed to be "primed" prior to injury to effect activation.

Paul R. Riley, Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Cardiology at the UCL-Institute of Child Health and the senior author of the publication stated, "Stem cell transplantation is not required,so this would avoid problems with which cells to use, immune rejection, cell survival, mode of delivery, reaching the site of injury, etc. In our study we stimulate resident (epicardial) progenitor cells, which are already in the right environment and poised to respond to the injury signals once activated by Thymosin β4."

"It is clear that the adult heart can respond to injury with an increase in these stem cells and that Tβ4 enhances this response," stated Deepak Srivastava, M.D., director of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, San Francisco, CA and a member of RegeneRx's Scientific Advisory Board. This is one of a number of mechanisms by which Tβ4 regenerates injured heart tissue beyond increased angiogenesis, decreased inflammation, increased cell survival, and decreased scar formation. Such findings point to the potential of using the patient's resident adult stem-cell population (rather than embryonic stem cells) after acute heart attack, congestive heart failure, cardiac ischemia, and reperfusion injury."

Source: RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.