Zebrafish heart regeneration occurs by cardiomyocyte dedifferentiation and proliferation

Although mammalian hearts show virtually no ability to regenerate, there is a growing initiative to determine whether existing cardiomyocytes or progenitor cells can be coaxed into eliciting a regenerative response. In contrast to mammals, a number of non-mammalian vertebrate species are able to regenerate their hearts1–3, including the zebrafish4,5, which can fully regenerate its heart following amputation of up to 20% of the ventricle. To directly address the source of newly formed cardiomyocytes during zebrafish heart regeneration, we first established a genetic strategy to lineage-trace cardiomyocytes in the adult fish, based on the Cre/lox system widely used in the mouse6. Using this system, we show here that regenerated heart muscle cells are derived from the proliferation of differentiated cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, we show that proliferating cardiomyocytes undergo limited dedifferentiation characterized by the disassembly of their sarcomeric structure, detachment from one another and expression of regulators of cell cycle progression. Specifically, we show that polo-like kinase1 (plk1) is an essential component of cardiomyocyte proliferation during heart regeneration. Our data provides the first direct evidence for the source of proliferating cardiomyocytes during zebrafish heart regeneration and indicates that stem/progenitor cells are not significantly involved in this process.