Resident c-kit+ cells in the heart are not cardiac stem cells

Nature Communications2015Vol. 6(1), pp. 8701–8701

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Nishat Sultana, Lu Zhang, Jianyun Yan, Jiqiu Chen, Weibin Cai, Shegufta Razzaque, Dongtak Jeong, Wei Sheng, Lei Bu, Mingjiang Xu, Guo-Ying Huang, Roger J. Hajjar, Bin Zhou, Anne Moon, Chen‐Leng Cai

Abstract

Identifying a bona fide population of cardiac stem cells (CSCs) is a critical step for developing cell-based therapies for heart failure patients. Previously, cardiac c-kit(+) cells were reported to be CSCs with a potential to become myocardial, endothelial and smooth muscle cells in vitro and after cardiac injury. Here we provide further insights into the nature of cardiac c-kit(+) cells. By targeting the c-kit locus with multiple reporter genes in mice, we find that c-kit expression rarely co-localizes with the expression of the cardiac progenitor and myogenic marker Nkx2.5, or that of the myocardial marker, cardiac troponin T (cTnT). Instead, c-kit predominantly labels a cardiac endothelial cell population in developing and adult hearts. After acute cardiac injury, c-kit(+) cells retain their endothelial identity and do not become myogenic progenitors or cardiomyocytes. Thus, our work strongly suggests that c-kit(+) cells in the murine heart are endothelial cells and not CSCs.

Citations Over TimeTop 1% of 2015 papers

Abstract

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