Abstract
The heart is one of the most important targets of regenerative medicine. The pacemaker, which controls the rate of beating, is also a target of regeneration. Until today, various researches have been aiming at generating biological pacemakers, but there are only a few reports about detailed analyses of candidates of cells for a really functional pacemaker. Recently, we reported novel induction methods of spontaneous beating cardiomyocytes from mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells, and detailed analysis of ion channel dynamics during their differentiation. This review briefly overviews up to date researches about biological pacemaker and our results achieved recently.
