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Cardiac commitment of primate embryonic stem cells

Nature Protocols volume 3, pages 1381–1387 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Primate nonhuman and human embryonic stem (ES) cells provide a powerful model of early cardiogenesis. Furthermore, engineering of cardiac progenitors or cardiomyocytes from ES cells offers a tool for drug screening in toxicology or to search for molecules to improve and scale up the process of cardiac differentiation using high-throughput screening technology, as well as a source of cell therapy of heart failure. Spontaneous differentiation of ES cells into cardiomyocytes is, however, limited. Herein, we describe a simple protocol to commit both rhesus and human ES cells toward a cardiac lineage and to sort out early cardiac progenitors. Primate ES cells are challenged for 4 d with the cardiogenic morphogen bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) and sorted out using anti-SSEA-1 antibody-conjugated magnetic beads. Cardiac progenitor cells can be generated and isolated in 4 d using this protocol.

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Figure 1: Differentiation of cardiac-specified ES cells.
Figure 2: Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis of CD15+ cells.
Figure 3
Figure 4: Gene expression profile of CD15+ cardiac progenitors.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the National Agency of Research (ANR) for supporting their research as well as providing salaries for J.L. and S.S. The Evry Genopole is also acknowledged for its financial support to the team. The authors thank Drs Cowan, Itskovitz and Amit, Hovatta and Mitalipov for generously providing the cell lines and for their continuous scientific support.

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  1. Julia Leschik, Sonia Stefanovic and Benjamin Brinon: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. INSERM-Evry University UMR861, 5 Rue Desbruères, Evry, 91030, France

    Julia Leschik, Sonia Stefanovic, Benjamin Brinon & Michel Pucéat

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  1. Julia Leschik
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  2. Sonia Stefanovic
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  3. Benjamin Brinon
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  4. Michel Pucéat
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Correspondence to Michel Pucéat.

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Leschik, J., Stefanovic, S., Brinon, B. et al. Cardiac commitment of primate embryonic stem cells. Nat Protoc 3, 1381–1387 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2008.116

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