Derivation of Cardiac Progenitor Cells from Embryonic Stem Cells

Summary

In this protocol, derivation of cardiac progenitor cells from both mouse and human embryonic stem cells will be illustrated. A major strategy in this protocol is to enrich cardiac progenitor cells with flow cytometry using fluorescent reporters engineered into the embryonic stem cell lines.

Abstract

Cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) have the capacity to differentiate into cardiomyocytes, smooth muscle cells (SMC), and endothelial cells and hold great promise in cell therapy against heart disease. Among various methods to isolate CPCs, differentiation of embryonic stem cell (ESC) into CPCs attracts great attention in the field since ESCs can provide unlimited cell source. As a result, numerous strategies have been developed to derive CPCs from ESCs. In this protocol, differentiation and purification of embryonic CPCs from both mouse and human ESCs is described. Due to the difficulty of using cell surface markers to isolate embryonic CPCs, ESCs are engineered with fluorescent reporters activated by CPC-specific cre recombinase expression. Thus, CPCs can be enriched by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). This protocol illustrates procedures to form embryoid bodies (EBs) from ESCs for CPC specification and enrichment. The isolated CPCs can be subsequently cultured for cardiac lineage differentiation and other biological assays. This protocol is optimized for robust and efficient derivation of CPCs from both mouse and human ESCs.

Introduction

Heart disease remains the leading cause in the world today and the death rates have remained virtually unchanged in the past two decades (American Heart Association). There is a critical need for developing novel therapeutic strategies to effectively prevent or reverse heart failure. One promising strategy is cell-based therapy following the rapid development of stem cell biology¹. In this regard, multipotent CPCs could be an excellent cell source for the therapy due to their ability to proliferate but committed only to cardiac lineage differentiation. Therefore, efficient and robust method to generate and isolate CPCs is of great importance for heart cell ....

Protocol

1. Derivation of Mouse Embryonic CPCs from Mouse ESCs

1. Prepare mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) feeder layer.
   1. Warm MEF medium (10% FBS in DMEM) to 37 °C.
   2. Prepare gelatin coated plates.
      1. Add 1 ml of 0.1% Gelatin in water into a well of 6-well plate or 5 ml into a 10 cm dish.
      2. Leave plates or dishes at 37 °C or room temperature for at least 30 min. Aspire the gelatin prior to use.
   3. Thaw irradiated MEFs quickly in a 37 °C water bath, with gentle shaking.
   4. Transfer the cells gently to a 15 ml or 50 ml conical tube. Add 5 ml of pre-warmed MEF medium. Swirl the cel....

Results

The protocol shows derivation of CPCs from several ES cell lines. ESCs are aggregated to form EBs to differentiate into CPCs. ESCs are routinely maintained on MEF feeders (Figure 1A, F) and feeders are removed before differentiation. Upon aggregation of ESCs into EBs in differentiation medium (Figure 1B, G), the second formed EBs are treated with Bmp4 and Activin A to enhance the mesoderm differentiation in mouse cell lines (Figure 1C). ESCs are differentiated into cardi.......

Discussion

This protocol combines a method using growth factors to guide mESCs differentiation and spontaneous differentiation of human ESCs into CPCs. CPC lineage marked with fluorescent reporter is used to efficiently identify and isolate CPCs by FACS. The FACS-purified CPCs retain the capacity to differentiate into cardiomyocytes, smooth muscle, and endothelial cells and have a comparable expression profile to the in vivo cells. Thus, these CPCs can serve as a great resource for cell based heart therapy because of their ability .......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
FBS	Thermo scentific	SH30070.03E
Knockout SR	Life technology	10828028
Knockout DMEM	Life technology	10829018
DMEM	Life technology	11965118
NEAA	Life technology	11140050
GlutaMAX	Life technology	35050061
N2	Life technology	17502048
B27	Life technology	12587010
Ham’s F12	Life technology	11765062
IMDM	Life technology	12440061
Pen/Strep	Life technology	15140122
Pyruvate	Life technology	11360070
Dispase	Life technology	17105041
Stempro-34	Life technology	10639011
DMEM/F12	Life technology	11330032
BSA	Life technology	15260037
Trypsin	Life technology	25200056
Ascobic Acid	Sigma	A5960
1-Thioglycerol	Sigma	M1753
2-Mercaptoethanol	Sigma	M3148
VEGF	R&D	293-VE
Bmp4	R&D	314-BP
ActivinA	R&D	338-AC
bFgf	R&D	233-FB
Fgf10	R&D	345-FG
mTeSR	Stemcell technologies	5850
Matrigel	BD Biosciences	354277