Human ISL1 heart progenitors generate diverse multipotent cardiovascular cell lineages

Studying the mechanisms underlying the diversification of human heart cell lineages has been hampered by the lack of genetic tools to purify early cardiac progenitors and define their developmental potential. By using independent transgenic and gene-targeting approaches in human embryonic stem cell lines, it has now been possible to show that populations of these primordial progenitors are capable of self-renewal and expansion prior to differentiation into the three major cell types in the heart.