ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Cardiovascular Biologics and Regenerative Medicine
This article is part of the Research TopicStem Cells in Cardiomyocyte Salvage: Bridging Regeneration and RepairView all 4 articles
Screening and Characterization of Natural Extracts as Dual-Functional Regulators for Cardiomyocyte Regeneration and Cardiac Repair
Provisionally accepted
- Department of Oncology, Guizhou Provincial People’s Hospital, Guiyang, China
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Objective:Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), the leading cause of global mortality, demand novel strategies to enhance cardiac regeneration. While ongoing research has begun to address the critical need for novel therapies aimed at regenerating cardiomyocytes in the context of cardiovascular disease, existing pharmacological interventions remain insufficient. This study was designed to systematically evaluate natural extracts for their potential to enhance cardiomyocyte differentiation and facilitate cardiac repair. Methods: We performed an extensive literature review and identified 22 natural extracts associated with cardiac regeneration and stem cell differentiation. Through the use of a Tnnt2H2B-mCherry reporter mouse embryonic stem cell (mESC) line, we determined that Ganoderma lucidum water extract (GLW) are potent inducers of cardiomyocyte differentiation both in vivo and in vitro. Results: GLW extracts significantly increased the proportion of beating cardiomyocytes, upregulated cardiac-specific markers (e.g., Tnnt2, Myh6), and enhanced the expression of key transcription factors (Isl1, Nkx2.5, Gata4, Mef2c) during cardiac progenitor cell (CPC) specification. Mechanistically, GLW modulated the Wnt signaling pathway, which is critical for CPCs specification. In vivo research experiments have shown that GLW can treat mice with myocardial infarction (MI) and improve cardiac function,as evidenced by increased ejection fraction and fractional shortening, along with enhanced proliferation of cardiomyocytes. Notably, GLW, particularly at higher doses, and promoted structural maturation of cardiomyocytes. Conclusions: Our findings underscore the potential of GLW as promising candidates for dual-functional therapies targeting myocardial regeneration and injury mitigation, providing novel insights into natural product-based interventions for CVD management.
Keywords: cardiac differentiation, Natural extracts, Myocardial Infarction, Ganoderma lucidum water, Wnt Signaling Pathway
Received: 08 Sep 2025; Accepted: 29 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu and Kuang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Chunyan Kuang, xiaokcy@sina.com
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