Adult Cardiac Stem Cell Aging: A Reversible Stochastic Phenomenon?

Figure 1

Schematic representation of the transitional sequence of cardiac stem cell-committed progeny. Quiescent, primitive, undifferentiated cardiac stem cells express Oct-4 (pink fluorescence), become activated, and start expressing c-kit (green fluorescence). In response to stress, these cells multiply and lose expression of Oct-4. The resulting c-kit pos/Oct-4 neg cells are still uncommitted to one specific cardiac cell lineage. After further expansion and differentiation, the cells induce expression of transcription factors specific to one cardiac lineage (GATA4, ETS1, or GATA6) and differentiate into one of the three cardiac cell types—cardiomyocytes, endothelial, and smooth muscle cells—respectively. These newly formed cardiac cells can undergo a few rounds of replication before becoming terminally differentiated. CSC: cardiac stem cell; vWF-VIII: von Willebrand factor VIII. Figure 1 is reproduced from Georgina M. Ellison et al., (under the Creative Commons Attribution License/public domain) [54].