Chunhui Xu

Cell replacement therapy is a promising approach for the treatment of cardiac diseases, but is challenged by a limited supply of appropriate cells. We have investigated whether functional cardiomyocytes can be efficiently generated from human embryonic stem (hES) cells. Cardiomyocyte differentiation was evaluated using 3 parent (H1, H7, and H9) hES cell lines and 2 clonal (H9.1 and H9.2) hES cell lines. All cell lines examined differentiated into cardiomyocytes, even after long-term culture (50 passages or approximately 260 population doublings). Upon differentiation, beating cells were observed after one week in differentiation conditions, increased in numbers with time, and could retain contractility for over 70 days. The beating cells expressed markers characteristic of cardiomyocytes, such as cardiac alpha-myosin heavy chain, cardiac troponin I and T, atrial natriuretic factor, and cardiac transcription factors GATA-4, Nkx2.5, and MEF-2. In addition, cardiomyocyte differentiation could be enhanced by treatment of cells with 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine but not DMSO or retinoic acid. Furthermore, the differentiated cultures could be dissociated and enriched by Percoll density centrifugation to give a population containing 70% cardiomyocytes. The enriched population was proliferative and showed appropriate expression of cardiomyocyte markers. The extended replicative capacity of hES cells and the ability to differentiate and enrich for functional human cardiomyocytes warrant further development of these cells for clinical application in heart diseases.

Previous studies have shown that prolonged propagation of undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) requires conditioned medium from mouse embryonic feeders (MEF-CM) as well as matrix components. Because hESCs express growth factor receptors, including those for basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), stem cell factor (SCF), and fetal liver tyrosine kinase-3 ligand (Flt3L), we evaluated these and other growth factors for their ability to maintain undifferentiated hESCs in the absence of conditioned medium. We found cultures maintained in bFGF alone or in combination with other factors showed characteristics similar to MEF-CM control cultures, including morphology, surface marker and transcription factor expression, telomerase activity, differentiation, and karyotypic stability. In contrast, cells in media containing Flt-3L, thrombopoietin, and SCF, individually or in combination, showed almost complete differentiation after 6 weeks in culture. These data demonstrate that hESCs can be maintained in nonconditioned medium using growth factors.