Transcriptional regulation of cardiac progenitor cell populations.
Transcriptome-wide analysis of dynamically regulated progenitor cell populations has the potential to elucidate key aspects of cardiac development. The heart, as the first organ to develop in the mammal, is a technically challenging but clinically relevant target for study. To define the transcriptional program of the cardiac progenitor, we used a novel transgenic strategy and fluorescence-activated cell sorting to reliably label and isolate cardiac progenitors directly from mouse embryos. Pure populations of cardiac progenitor cells were isolated from the cardiac crescent and 2 subsequent stages of heart development: the linear heart tube and the looping heart. RNA was isolated from stage-specific cardiac progenitors and subjected to transcriptome analysis by oligonucleotide array hybridization. The cardiac transcriptional regulatory programs were compared with the molecular programs of age-matched noncardiac embryonic cells, embryonic stem cells, adult cardiomyocytes, and each other to identify sets of genes exhibiting differential expression in the cardiac progenitor cell population. These results define the transcriptional profile of mammalian cardiac progenitor cells and provide insight into the molecular regulation of the earliest periods of heart development.
Masino
Amanda M
AM
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Dallas, Dallas, TX 75390-8573, USA.
Gallardo
Teresa D
TD
Wilcox
Celeste A
CA
Olson
Eric N
EN
Williams
R Sanders
RS
Garry
Daniel J
DJ
D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D006321:Heart / Q000196:embryology*; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009024:Morphogenesis / Q000235:genetics; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C054562:yellow fluorescent protein, Bacteria