Trop2 plays a cardioprotective role by promoting cardiac c-kit+ cell proliferation and inhibition of apoptosis in the acute phase of myocardial infarction

Trop2 is a cell-surface glycoprotein associated with epithelial carcinomas. Although recent studies indicated that Trop2 is expressed in some stem-like cells, the molecular function of the protein remains largely unknown. In the present study, we observed that acute phase myocardial infarction (MI) induced an increase of c-kit+/Trop2+ cells and found that Trop2 enhanced cardiac c-kit+ cell survival and proliferation via its antiapoptotic activity, due to an elevated activity of ribosomal S6 kinases in the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. This study provides insight into better understanding the molecular function of Trop2, which could serve as a potential target for the treatment of MI.