Direct reprogramming of mouse fibroblasts to cardiac progenitor-like cells

Heart diseases are the most significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the world. Cell therapy has been proposed as a promising approach to treat heart diseases. To this end, different types of stem cells such as pluripotent stem cells (embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells) and multipotent stem cells (mesenchymal stem cells and cardiac progenitor cells) have been used for producing cardiac cells (cardiac progenitor cells/cardiomyocytes) in vitro. Direct reprogramming of fibroblasts to cardiac cells is the newest strategy for de novo generation of cardiac lineage cells. This approach is a shortcut for easy and safe production of cardiac lineage cells in vitro and in vivo. In the current study, mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) were directly reprogrammed to the cells expressing cardiac progenitor markers. To reprogram fibroblasts to cardiac lineage cells, pluripotency key transcription factor Oct4 and cardiac specific transcription factor Mef2C were overexpressed in MEFs. After three weeks, the transduced cell formed some cardiac progenitor like colonies. Gene expression analysis and immunostaining for cardiac lineage and pluripotency markers demonstrated that the emerged colonies were cardiac progenitor colonies derived through the direct reprogramming process. The results of this study indicate that direct reprogramming can open a new avenue for producing cardiac cells required in cell therapy including cardiomyocytes and cardiac progenitor cells.