Rat and mouse bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells can spontaneously express troponin T.

PURPOSE: This study aims to investigate whether the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) of rat and mice can spontaneously express troponin T (cTnT) in vitro. METHODS: The BMSCs of rats and mice were cultured in vitro. The expression of cTnT in the BMSCs of rats and mice was detected by immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, and Western blot. The detection of cTnT and α-sarcomeric actin coexpression on the surface of BMSCs was determined using immunofluorescence and qRT-PCR. RESULTS: In rats and mice, cTnT expression was detected in a portion of BMSCs. The positive rates of cTnT in rats and mice were approximately 10-52 % and 27-60 %, respectively. According to the results of the Western blot analysis, the gray values of cTnT in rats and mice were 0.64 ± 0.02 and 1.08 ± 0.03, respectively. Additionally, the surface of BMSCs can express cTnT and α-sarcomeric actin, which is a marker for striated muscle. CONCLUSION: The BMSCs of rats and mice can spontaneously express cTnT and automatically differentiate striated muscles in vitro.

Rs17042171 at chromosome 4q25 is associated with atrial fibrillation in the Chinese Han population from the central plains / 中南大学学报(医学版)

Objective:To determine the correlations of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with atrial fibrillation (AF) in the Chinese Han population from the central plains.Methods:A total of 168 hospitalized patients,including 56 AF and 112 controls,were recruited in this case-control study.The clinical data were obtained from the medical records.All 5 SNPs,rs337711 in KCNN2,rs11264280 near KCNN3,rs17042171 near PITX2,rs6771157 and rs6795970 in SCN10A,were genotyped using amplification refractory mutation system-polymerase chain reaction or direct sequencing.The x2 test was used to compare categorical variables and preliminarily examine correlations between the genotype frequencies and AF.Subsequently,a logistic regression model was constructed to determine the associations between the SNPs and AF based on the above screened results.Odds ratios (ORs) and 95％ confidence interval (CI) were calculated to assess the strength of the correlations.Moreover,we downloaded the genotype data from the HapMap Project for linkage disequilibrium analysis ofrs17042171.Results:AF patients were likely to be of older age and longer left atrial diameter and had more coronary artery disease and higher hypertension compared with the control group (P＜0.05).Among the 5 SNPs,the frequency distribution of genotype AA for rs17042171 was significantly different between the AF and control groups (P＜0.05).After adjusting for several covariates,there was still a high risk ratio in patients with the AA genotype compared with the AC+CC genotype (OR:5.591,95％CI 2.176 to 14.365,P-B＜0.008).Similarly,stratification analysis on the AA genotype demonstrated significant differences between rs17042171 and persistent AF.However,there were not significant correlations between AF and the control groups for the other 4 SNPs (P＜0.05).Conclusion:Rs17042171,near PITX2 on chromosome 4q25,is associated with AF susceptibility in the Chinese Han population from the central plains,suggesting that this SNP can provide a new strategy for clinical diagnosis in AF patients.