C-kit+ cardiac progenitors exhibit mesenchymal markers and preferential cardiovascular commitment

Abstract

In line with previous findings, our results indicate that c-kit(+) cardiac progenitors are primitive stem cells endowed with multilineage differentiation ability. They further suggest a possible relationship between these cells and a heart-specific MSC population with cardiovascular commitment potential.

A fibrin-supported myocardial organ culture for isolation of cardiac stem cells via the recapitulation of cardiac homeostasis

“…3B and C, in situ OCs uniformly expressed CSCs markers, such as nestin (91.2%), Sca-1 (93.5%), Nkx-2.5 (82.5%) and GATA-4 (87.8%). Accumulated evidence describes that CSCs share their immunophenotypic profile with MSCs [7,13,44]. Our immunohistochemical staining also supported this notion that in situ OCs expressed MSC markers, such as CD29 (98.7%), CD44 (98.5%), CD90 (95.8%), CD105 (97.8%) and CD140b (96.2%), but modestly expressed CD146 (45.8%).…”

“…Previous studies have been reported that CSCs share immunophenotypic profiles with MSCs [7,13,44]. Our results also indicated that more than 95% of subcultured OCs at P3 were positive for MSC markers, including CD29 (98.7%), CD73 (97.8%), CD90 (95.8%) and CD105 (96.5%) without immunophenotypic drift following repeated subcultures (Fig.…”

“…This tissue-specific innate propensity of MSCs is closely related with an ability to replenish parenchyma in a tissuespecific manner in response to injury and disease [3]. Independent studies ascribe MSC properties to CSCs and vice versa on the base of CSCs sharing similar biologic properties and immunophenotype with MSCs [7,13,23,44]. Compared with extra-cardiac tissue-resident MSCs, one of the distinctive features of CSCs is their cardiovascular commitment potential.…”

Evaluation of Endothelial Cells Differentiated from Amniotic Fluid-Derived Stem Cells

“…1,2,7 In bone marrowderived MSC, c-kit + selection has been shown to be a marker of cardiovascular progenitor cells and also serves to remove mature cells from the adherent population. 9 The use of growth factors, such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), to induce chemical-mediated endothelial differentiation of ESC and MSC is well characterized. [10][11][12] In these stem cell populations, incubation with VEGF at concentrations of 50 ng/mL or higher has been shown to trigger production of proteins constitutively expressed in endothelial cells, such as von Willebrand factor (vWF), [12][13][14][15] endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), 14,15 PECAM-1/CD31, 14,16,17 vascular endothelial cadherin (VE-cadherin), 12,14,16 and VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR2/KDR/Flk-1) 12,16 and acquisition of functional markers characteristic of endothelial cells, such as uptake of acetylated low density lipoproteins (ac-LDL) 16,17 and network formation when plated on Matrigel.…”

Sca-1+Cardiac Progenitor Cells and Heart-Making: A Critical Synopsis

“…The strategy to isolate CPCs by the expression of c-Kit [20,21] and Sca-1 [22][23][24][25], two surface proteins also present on hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), coincided with claims that adult hematopoietic progenitors could, under certain conditions, generate cells affiliated with different tissues (neurons and muscle, among others) [26,27]. Despite subsequent evidence that unmanipulated HSCs can only regenerate the hematopoietic system, the notion that c-Kit and Sca-1 could be useful markers to identify the adult stem/ progenitor compartment in multiple tissues persisted in the scientific community.…”