ABSTRACT
AIM: to speed up transdifferentiation of bone marrow-derived stem cells into cardiomyocyte in vitro by inducing dedifferentiation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell, before induction by 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine into cardiomyocyte. METHODS: two-three months old 2.5 kg weight adult male New Zealanad Rabbits were anesthezied with ether, thigh bones were excised, and bone marrow cells were obtained by aspiration. RESULTS: in our experiments after 1 week of mesenchymal stem cell cultures, 20 nM reversin was given to induce dediferentiation and after 24 hours exposure with 9µM 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine, early phase of cardiomyocyte differentiation appeared as cultured cell were strongly positive for GATA-4 and weakly positive for MLC-2ά, although beating cardiomyocyte has not yet appeared at the end of experiment. These experiments also showed a marked CD34+ and c-kit+ gene expression on RT-PCR examination. CONCLUSION: reversine increase plasticity of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell to generate cardiomyocyte after 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine induction. CD34+ and c-kit+ may be a marker for cardiomyocyte progenitor cells.