The heart-building cell
Cardiac progenitor cells
Cardiac progenitor cells are the cells the heart is constructed from — the muscle that contracts, the vessels that feed it, and the smooth muscle in their walls.
What it is
A cardiac progenitor cell is a cell already committed to becoming heart tissue, but not yet finished. It sits one step further along than a general-purpose stem cell and one step short of a working heart cell.
They are abundant while the heart is being built before birth. The adult heart retains very few, which is a large part of why heart muscle regenerates so poorly compared with, say, skin or liver.
What it does in the body
Cardiac progenitors mature into the three cell types the heart is made of. Cardiomyocytes are the muscle cells that actually contract — they are electrically coupled to their neighbours so that a whole chamber squeezes as one. Endothelial cells line the coronary vessels. Smooth muscle cells form the muscular wall of those vessels and set their diameter.
Building working heart tissue means producing all three in the right proportions and in the right arrangement, which is why the progenitor stage is of such interest in laboratory work: one cell type that can supply the whole set.
Where RediCell’s come from
Differentiated from umbilical cord tissue, expanded no further than passage two.
What RediCell supplies from this line
Listed for reference only. Cell counts, particle counts and fill volumes are the specification; pricing is not published here and ordering is restricted to verified practitioners and institutions.
| Code | Preparation | Specification |
|---|---|---|
| RC-CPCs-10 | Cardiac Progenitor Cells | 10M cells / 2 ml vial |
| RC-CPCs-25 | Cardiac Progenitor Cells | 25M cells / 5 ml vial |
| RC-EX-C1 | Cardiac Exosome Matrix w/ growth factors | 110B+ exosomes / 1 ml vial |