Review Article

Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Cardiac Regenerative Therapy: Optimization of Cell Differentiation Strategy

Table 1

The inducer for BMSC differentiation.

Inducing conditionYearResearcherCulturing duration after inductionDetection marker

5-Aza 1995 Wakitani et al. [25]24 h7–10 days observing myotube-like structures and expressing cardiac-specific protein

1999Makino et al. [26]24 h1 week: myotube-like structures,
2 weeks: spontaneous beating, and
3 weeks: synchronous contraction,
expressing cardiac-specific protein and exhibiting biological and electrophysiological characteristics of myocardial cells

BMP-22005 He Qizhi and Haijie [27]24 hThe expression of Nkx2.5, GATA-4, cTnT, and CX43 increasing

Ang-II2012Xing et al. [28]24 hExpressing cTnI after 4 weeks, exhibiting morphological characteristics of myocardial cells, and being seen as muscle wire-like structures under the electron microscope

DMSO1999Skerjanc [29]>6 dSpontaneously beating cardiac myocytes after 6 days

Panax notoginseng saponins2006Yang et al. [30]24 h2 weeks: beginning to express MHC and more apparent after 4 weeks

Sal B2007Chen et al. [31]24 hExpression of NKX2.5 GATA-4 mRNA enhanced and peaked at 7 days; the expression of α-actin appeared at 14 days

Icariin2008 Shao-Ying [32]24 h28 days, weakly expressing GATA-4, Nkx2-5, combining with 5-Aza enhance its induction

Astragaloside2007Xian et al. [33]24 h, 48 h, and 72 h4 weeks detecting cardiac-specific protein desmin, cTnI, α-MHC, and β-MHC, no significant difference in induction rate with different length

Microenvironment in vivo2002Toma et al. [34]hMSCs could differentiate into myocardium and express myocardium specific protein in left ventricular microenvironment of SCID mice—cTnT and phosphoprotein regulating Ca-ATP activity at sarcoplasmic reticulum.

CLM 2005Yuan et al. [35]7 d7 days, the cells growing well, expressing α-actin and cTnT

Coculturing with cardiomyocytes2003Rangappa et al. [36]48 hhMSCs coculturing with cardiomyocytes at a 1 : 1 ratio, expressing contractile proteins and cardiac specific genes, MHC, and beta-actin