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Priming with oxytocin and relaxin improves cardiac differentiation of adipose tissue–derived stem cells
Author(s) -
Taha Masoumeh Fakhr,
Javeri Arash,
Karimipour Mojtaba,
Yamaghani Mojtaba Saghafi
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of cellular biochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.028
H-Index - 165
eISSN - 1097-4644
pISSN - 0730-2312
DOI - 10.1002/jcb.27868
Subject(s) - oxytocin , relaxin , priming (agriculture) , adipose tissue , stem cell , endocrinology , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , biology , hormone , botany , germination
Previous studies have identified the heart as a source and a target tissue for oxytocin and relaxin hormones. These hormones play important roles in the regulation of cardiovascular function and repair of ischemic heart injury. In the current study, we examined the impact of oxytocin and relaxin on the development of cardiomyocytes from mesenchymal stem cells. For this purpose, mouse adipose tissue–derived stem cells (ADSCs) were treated with different concentrations of oxytocin or relaxin for 4 days. Three weeks after initiation of cardiac induction, differentiated ADSCs expressed cardiac‐specific genes, Gata4 , Mef2c , Nkx2.5, Tbx5 , α‐ and β‐Mhc , Mlc2v , Mlc2a and Anp , and cardiac proteins including connexin 43, desmin and α‐actinin. 10 −7 M oxytocin and 50 ng/mL relaxin induced the maximum upregulation in the expression of cardiac markers. A combination of oxytocin and relaxin induced cardiomyocyte differentiation more potently than the individual factors. In our experiment, oxytocin‐relaxin combination increased the population of cardiac troponin I‐expressing cells to 6.84% as compared with 2.36% for the untreated ADSCs, 3.7% for oxytocin treatment and 3.41% for relaxin treatment groups. In summary, the results of this study indicated that oxytocin and relaxin hormones individually and in combination can improve cardiac differentiation of ADSCs, and treatment of the ADSCs and possibly other mesenchymal stem cells with these hormones may enhance their cardiogenic differentiation and survival after transplantation into the ischemic heart tissue.