Cardiac Niche Influences the Direct Reprogramming of Canine Fibroblasts into Cardiomyocyte-Like Cells

Figure 5

Localization of cardiac markers in ciCLMs. (a) Alpha sarcomeric actinin (red) and connexin 43 (green) were present in ciCLMs in similar amount to reprogrammed Bj-cells. (b) Immunofluorescence analysis revealed the expression of alpha sarcomeric actinin (αSA, red), connexin 43 (CNX43, green; white arrows indicate CNX43 expression on the cell membrane), myosin heavy chain (MyHC, red), and cardiac troponin T (red) in ciCLMs after 14 days under differentiating conditions. (c) ciCLM cells did not express cardiac markers homogenously. A few cells expressing αSA were GFP negative and vice versa (left panels) and occasionally CNX43 (green arrows) and αSA (red arrows) were mutually exclusively expressed (right panel).

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