Mechanisms of stem cell based cardiac repair-gap junctional signaling promotes the cardiac lineage specification of mesenchymal stem cells.

ABSTRACT: Different subtypes of bone marrow-derived stem cells are characterized by varying functionality and activity after transplantation into the infarcted heart. Improvement of stem cell therapeutics requires deep knowledge about the mechanisms that mediate the benefits of stem cell treatment. Here, we demonstrated that co-transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) led to enhanced synergistic effects on cardiac remodeling. While HSCs were associated with blood vessel formation, MSCs were found to possess transdifferentiation capacity. This cardiomyogenic plasticity of MSCs was strongly promoted by a gap junction-dependent crosstalk between myocytes and stem cells. The inhibition of cell-cell coupling significantly reduced the expression of the cardiac s

SUBMITTER: Lemcke H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5574972 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature