Bmi-1 high-expressing cells enrich cardiac stem/progenitor cells and respond to heart injury.

ABSTRACT: Bmi-1 gene is well recognized as an oncogene, but has been recently demonstrated to play a role in the self-renewal of tissue-specific stem cells. By using Bmi-1^GFP/+ mice, we investigated the role of Bmi-1 in cardiac stem/progenitor cells and myocardial repair. RT-PCR and flow cytometry analysis indicated that the expression of Bmi-1 was significantly higher in cardiac side population than the main population from CD45^- Ter119^- CD31^- heart cells. More Sca-1⁺ cardiac stem/progenitor cells were found in Bmi-1 GFP^hi subpopulation, and these Bmi-1 GFP^hi heart cells showed the potential of differentiation into SMM⁺ smooth muscle-like cells and TnT⁺ cardiomyocyte-like cells in vitro. Th

SUBMITTER: Song Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6307799 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature