Overexpression of integrin-linked kinase induces cardiac stem cell expansion.

Objective: Recent evidence suggests that the adult heart contains stem cells that are capable of self-renewal as well as multilineage differentiation. However, their inherent capacity for self-renewal is limiting to cell replacement applications. Integrin-linked kinase is a multifunctional protein kinase that activates Wnt target genes implicated in the symmetric replication of embryonic stem cells.