title: Cardiomyocytes fuse with surrounding noncardiomyocytes and reenter the cell cycle.
abstract: The concept of the plasticity or transdifferentiation of adult stem cells has been challenged by the phenomenon of cell fusion. In this work, we examined whether neonatal cardiomyocytes fuse with various somatic cells including endothelial cells, cardiac fibroblasts, bone marrow cells, and endothelial progenitor cells spontaneously in vitro. When cardiomyocytes were cocultured with endothelial cells or cardiac fibroblasts, they fused and showed phenotypes of cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, cardiomyocytes reentered the G2-M phase in the cell cycle after fusing with proliferative noncardiomyocytes. Transplanted endothelial cells or skeletal muscle-derived cells fused with adult cardiomyocytes in vivo. In the cryoinjured heart, there were Ki67-positive cells that expressed both cardiac and endothelial lineage marker proteins. These results suggest that cardiomyocytes fuse with other cells and enter the cell cycle by maintaining their phenotypes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Science and Medicine, Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba 260-8670, Japan.
authors.forename: Katsuhisa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matsuura
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagai
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Iijima
authors.forename: Tohru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Minamino
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sano
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Akazawa
authors.forename: Jeffery D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Molkentin
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kasanuki
authors.forename: Issei
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Komuro
mesh_terms: D000256:Adenoviridae / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D002450:Cell Communication; D002453:Cell Cycle; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002455:Cell Division; D019070:Cell Lineage; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D017690:Cell Transplantation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000378:metabolism; D016195:G2 Phase; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen / Q000096:biosynthesis; D007763:Lac Operon; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008957:Models, Genetic; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000166:cytology; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000378:metabolism*; D015739:Nocodazole / Q000494:pharmacology; D010641:Phenotype; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D013997:Time Factors; D019076:Transgenes
chemical_list: D019394:Ki-67 Antigen; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D015739:Nocodazole