How hormones and nerve signals control heart muscle cell growth and renewal
Official title: Neurohumoral Interactions Coordinating Mammalian Cardiomyocyte Size and Proliferation
Funded at San Jose State University · NIH-11115754 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at how hormone and nerve-related signals after birth influence whether heart muscle cells grow larger or keep dividing, aiming to help people who lose heart muscle after a heart attack.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | San Jose State University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (San Jose, United States) |
| Project start | July 18, 2022 |
| Project end | June 30, 2026 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $183,125 |
| NIH project number | 5R16GM146643-04 |
| Project ID | NIH-11115754 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
People who have had a heart attack or have heart failure would be the likely eventual beneficiaries of therapies inspired by this research.
✕Less likely to help
People without heart muscle damage or those needing immediate clinical care are unlikely to receive direct benefit from this lab-focused work.
What this research studies
Scientists are trying to understand why newborn mammals can regrow heart muscle but adults cannot. They will use newborn and juvenile mice to test how thyroid hormone and adrenergic (adrenaline-like) signals affect heart muscle cell size, division, and the shift to permanent cell-cycle exit. The team will block these pathways together and use cell imaging, measurements of cell division and ploidy, and molecular analyses to see how growth signals link to the cell cycle. These findings could point to new targets for treatments to help human hearts replace lost muscle after injury.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could reveal new drug targets or treatment strategies to help adult hearts regenerate muscle after a heart attack.
How similar studies have gone: Animal studies from this group and others have shown that blocking thyroid and adrenergic signals can keep mouse heart cells dividing longer and improve recovery, but translating these findings to adult humans remains unproven.
Where this research is happening
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San Jose State University
San Jose, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Payumo, Alexander Y — San Jose State University
- Study coordinator: Payumo, Alexander Y
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.