Cardiac differentiation of human wharton's jelly stem cells - experimental comparison of protocols

Cardiomyoplasty represents a promising approach for the repair of the injured heart, but is hampered by the availability of appropriate cells. Mesenchymal stem cells derived from the human umbilical cord tissue (UCMSC) can be obtained in large amounts without medical intervention, exhibit self renewal and immunological naivity as well as multipotency. In the present study, different published protocols of cardiac differentiation designed for different stem cell types were compared to differentiate UCMSC into cardiomyocyte-like cells (cUCMSC). Cardiac differentiation of UCMSC was driven by cell treatment with 5-azacytidine, oxytocin as well as by forming of "embryoid bodies". The morphological and immunocytochemical analysis of cUCMSC with an extensive panel of cardiac markers showed that oxytocin is a more potent inducer of cardiac differentiation than 5-azacytidine and the forming of "embryoid bodies". cUCMSC reveal a cardiomyocyte-like structure and the expression of cardiomyocyte associated proteins. The easy accessibility and the ability of UCMSC to differentiate into cells with characteristics of cardiomyocytes render UCMSC an attractive candidate for cell based therapies and cardiac tissue engineering.