Tunneling nanotube-like structures offer insight into how the heart's layers communicate during formation
From his lab at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy Drug Discovery Institute, Mingfu Wu, associate professor, is offering new hope for treating heart disease by sharing his insights into the fundamental process of how the heart is formed in utero. His findings, published in Science, focus on long, thin, channels of membranes—called tunneling nanotube-like structures—that connect cells together. Wu reports the structures may be a fundamental way for cells to communicate, offering new insights into heart disease development and potential treatments.