Cells, Volume 14, Issue 22
2025 November-2 - 90 articles
Cover Story: Epicardial cells of the embryonic heart maintain a squamous morphology, allowing only a subset to undergo mesenchymal transformation and contribute to heart development. We found that a null mutation in Plakophilin 2 (Pkp2), a key structural component of desmosomes, severely disrupts epicardial development in embryonic mice. Shortly after the epicardial layer forms on the myocardial surface, Pkp2-null epicardial cells (blue) lose their squamous morphology and detach from the myocardium (Beige). They subsequently acquire mesenchymal characteristics in an unrestrained manner and differentiate into hematopoietic stem cells and erythroid lineage cells (red). These findings demonstrate that desmosomal junctions are essential for proper cardiogenesis by limiting excessive epithelial–mesenchymal transition within the epicardium. View this paper - Issues are regarded as officially published after their release is announced to the table of contents alert mailing list .
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