title: Bone morphogenetic protein-4 enhances cardiomyocyte differentiation of cynomolgus monkey ESCs in knockout serum replacement medium.
abstract: Despite extensive research in the differentiation of rodent ESCs into cardiomyocytes, there have been few studies of this process in primates. In this study, we examined the role of bone morphogenic protein-4 (BMP-4) to induce cardiomyocyte differentiation of cynomolgus monkey ESCs. To study the role of BMP-4, EBs were formed and cultured in Knockout Serum Replacement (KSR) medium containing BMP-4 for 8 days and subsequently seeded in gelatin-coated dishes for 20 days. It was found that ESCs differentiated into cardiomyocytes upon stimulation with BMP-4 in KSR medium, which resulted in a large fraction of beating EBs ( approximately 16%) and the upregulation of cardiac-specific proteins in a dose and time-dependent manner. In contrast, the addition of BMP-4 in FBS-containing medium resulted in a lower fraction of beating EBs ( approximately 6%). BMP-4 acted principally between mesendodermal and mesoderm progenitors and subsequently enhanced their expression. Ultrastructural observation revealed that beating EBs contained mature cardiomyocytes with sarcomeric structures. In addition, immunostaining, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and Western blotting for cardiac markers confirmed the increased differentiation of cardiomyocytes in these cultures. Moreover, electrophysiological studies demonstrated that the differentiated cardiomyocytes were electrically activated. These findings may be useful in developing effective culture conditions to differentiate cynomolgus monkey ESCs into cardiomyocytes for studying developmental biology and for regenerative medicine.
authors.affiliation: International Center for Young Scientists, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan. hossein.hosseinkhani@nims.go.jp
authors.forename: Mohsen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hosseinkhani
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hosseinkhani
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khademhosseini
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bolland
authors.forename: Hisatoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Susanna Prat
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D055415:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4; D019485:Bone Morphogenetic Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003470:Culture Media; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects; D006321:Heart / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008252:Macaca fascicularis; D023421:Models, Animal; D032342:Muscle Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D009206:Myocardium / Q000166:cytology; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D055415:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4; D019485:Bone Morphogenetic Proteins; D003470:Culture Media