ArticleThe Journal of clinical investigation2009
Melanocyte-like cells in the heart and pulmonary veins contribute to atrial arrhythmia triggers.
Article in The Journal of clinical investigation, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 89 citations in OpenAlex.
- 2017 HRS/EHRA/ECAS/APHRS/SOLAECE expert consensus statement on catheter and surgical ablation of atrial fibrillation.Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology · 2018Guideline
- Guideline
- Guideline
- Body pigmentation as a risk factor for the formation of intracranial aneurysms.BioMed research international · 2014Trial
- Loss of MITF activity leads to emergent cell states from the melanocyte stem cell lineage.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Interstitial cells and arrhythmia.American journal of physiology. Cell physiology · 2026Review
- Models of cardiomyocyte-non-myocyte electrical interactions.The Journal of physiology · 2026Review
- Abcb5-deficient mice show a subtle, pleiotropic phenotype indicating a role for this transporter in intermediary metabolism.iScience · 2025Article
- Insights into lysosome-related organelle biogenesis: melanosome as a model organelle.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2025Article
- Chemiexcitation: Mammalian Photochemistry in the DarkPhotochemistry and photobiology · 2023Review
- PI3K(p110α) as a determinant and gene therapy for atrial enlargement in atrial fibrillation.Molecular and cellular biochemistry · 2023Review
- Biology of melanocytes in mammals.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2023Review
- Melanin: a unifying theory of disease as exemplified by Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and Lewy body dementia.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- Review
- X-linked creatine transporter deficiency results in prolonged QTc and increased sudden death risk in humans and disease model.Genetics in medicine : official journal of the American College of Medical Genetics · 2021Article
- Nerve-associated Schwann cell precursors contribute extracutaneous melanocytes to the heart, inner ear, supraorbital locations and brain meninges.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2021Article
- Nerve-associated Schwann cell precursors contribute extracutaneous melanocytes to the heart, inner ear, supraorbital locations and brain meninges.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2021Article
- Transcriptome analysis reveals key pathways that vary in patients with paroxysmal and persistent atrial fibrillation.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2021Article
- Synchronized Cardiac Impulses Emerge From Heterogeneous Local Calcium Signals Within and Among Cells of Pacemaker Tissue.JACC. Clinical electrophysiology · 2020Article
- Transcriptional Patterning of the Ventricular Cardiac Conduction System.Circulation research · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
20 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Atrial fibrillation is the most common clinical cardiac arrhythmia. It is often initiated by ectopic beats arising from the pulmonary veins and atrium, but the source and mechanism of these beats remains unclear. The melanin synthesis enzyme dopachrome tautomerase (DCT) is involved in intracellular calcium and reactive species regulation in melanocytes. Given that dysregulation of intracellular calcium and reactive species has been described in patients with atrial fibrillation, we investigated the role of DCT in this process. Here, we characterize a unique DCT-expressing cell population within murine and human hearts that populated the pulmonary veins, atria, and atrioventricular canal. Expression profiling demonstrated that this population expressed adrenergic and muscarinic receptors and displayed transcriptional profiles distinct from dermal melanocytes. Adult mice lacking DCT displayed normal cardiac development but an increased susceptibility to atrial arrhythmias. Cultured primary cardiac melanocyte-like cells were excitable, and those lacking DCT displayed prolonged repolarization with early afterdepolarizations. Furthermore, mice with mutations in the tyrosine kinase receptor Kit lacked cardiac melanocyte-like cells and did not develop atrial arrhythmias in the absence of DCT. These data suggest that dysfunction of melanocyte-like cells in the atrium and pulmonary veins may contribute to atrial arrhythmias.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.