Figure 5

Differentiation potential of subcultured cells from Sca-1⁺-enriched populations into cardiomyocyte-like cells in vitro. A- B. All cell populations were stained for the cardiomyocyte specific marker cardiac MHC (green), cardiac Troponin T (green) and DAPI (blue) after induction. White arrows indicate representative cells positive for each cardiomyocyte-specific antigen. Scale bar = 50 μm. C. Expression of cardiac-specific transcription factors GATA4 and Nkx2.5, early cardiogenic gene MEF2c, and cardiomyocyte-specific genes α-MHC, β-MHC, MLC-2a, and MLC-2v was analyzed by RT-PCR. RNA extracted from whole postnatal mouse heart (mH) was used as a positive control.