Isolation and phenotyping of cardiac-derived progenitor cells from neonatal mice

Abstract

Dysfunctions of resident progenitor cells play a significant role in the pathogenesis of decreased myocardial contractility in heart failure, so the most promising approaches for the treatment of heart disease are cardiac-derived stem/progenitor cells (CSCs). Materials and methods. Protocols for progenitor cell cultures from different parts of the heart of newborn FVB/N mice have been developed and their proliferative potential has been characterized. Comparative analysis of the expression of CD31, CD34, CD44, CD45, CD73, CD90, CD105, CD117, CD309 and troponin I by cells from native myocardial biopsies and in the obtained cultures was performed by flow cytometric immunophenotyping. Results. The expression of mesenchymal markers CD44 and CD90 in the absence of the hematopoietic marker CD45 was demonstrated in early passages in mouse myocardial progenitor cell cultures. Relatively high expression of CD34 and CD31 was found. The presence of a minor population of CD44+117+ cells which correspond to the phenotype of cardiac progenitor cells, was detected. Expression of troponin I as one of the key markers of cardiomyocytes as well as the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor has been confirmed in terminally differentiated cultures of cells with contractile activity. Conclusions. It was found that newborn mice in the myocardial tissue contain more cells with the expression of markers of cardiac progenitors than in adult animals. The relative content of such cells is higher in the atria than in the ventricles. Cardiac progenitor cells in neonatal mice derived from the atrial appendages have better proliferative potential than cell cultures isolated from the ventricles.