title: Skeletal muscle-derived stem cells exhibit cardiocyte competences.
abstract: Adult stem cells from skeletal muscle cells were induced to differentiate into cardiocytes to see if stem cells from another different but histologically-comparable tissues can differentiate to the target cells. Skeletal muscles-derived stem cells (MDSCs) were isolated from adult skeleton muscle tissues by differential adhesion, and immunocytochemically identified by using Sca-1. In order to induce the proliferation but not differentiation of MDSCs, the cells were cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium/F12 (DMEM/F12) supplemented with 1:50 B27, 20 ng/mL basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), 20 ng/mL epidermal growth factor (EGF) in a suspension for 6 days. Then these stem cells were treated with 5 mumol/L 5-azacytidine for 24 h in an adherence culture. The characteristics of induced cells were examined by immunocytochemistry, quantitative real time RT-PCR and morphological observation of cell phenotype. Our results showed that the appearance of some cells gradually changed from spindle-shape into polygonal or short-column-shape. Some of these post-treated cells could contract spontaneously and rhythmically. The expression of GATA-4 and cTnT was increased 1 and 2 week(s) after the treatment. And about 16.6% of post-treated cells were cTnT-positive. Therefore, we are led to conclude that skeletal muscle-derived stem cells could differentiate into cardiocyte-like cells, which exhibited some characteristics of cardiocytes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hand Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430022, China. lijin1973@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Desheng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Guangxiang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Jianghai
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Zhenbin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D053687:Adult Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003470:Culture Media / Q000737:chemistry; D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor / Q000494:pharmacology; D016222:Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 / Q000494:pharmacology; D050991:GATA4 Transcription Factor / Q000378:metabolism; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000166:cytology*; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D050991:GATA4 Transcription Factor; C484170:GATA4 protein, human; D016222:Fibroblast Growth Factor 2; D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor