Spatially organized cellular communities form the developing human heart. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38480880/)

These scientists wanted to understand how different types of cells in our heart work together to make it function properly. They used a special technique called single-cell RNA-sequencing to study individual cells in the heart and see what genes they were using. They also used a method called fluorescence in situ hybridization to see where these cells were located in the heart.

By doing this, the scientists were able to figure out that the cells in our heart are organized into specific groups that work together to form different parts of the heart. They found out that certain types of cells in the heart are specialized to do specific jobs in different areas of the heart.

To learn more about how these cells interact with each other, the scientists used mice and human cells in the lab to see how they communicate and organize themselves to build the heart. This study helped the scientists learn more about how our heart is made and how different cells work together to keep it healthy.

Farah EN., Hu RK., Kern C., Zhang Q., Lu TY., Ma Q., Tran S., Zhang B., Carlin D., Monell A., Blair AP., Wang Z., Eschbach J., Li B., Destici E., Ren B., Evans SM., Chen S., Zhu Q., Chi NC. Spatially organized cellular communities form the developing human heart. Nature. 2024 Mar 13. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07171-z.