Differentiation Of Human Hair Follicle Mesenchymal Stem Cells Towards Cardiomyocyte-like Cells

The follicle is one of the important subsidiary organs of skin. A importantcharacter is self-renewal and cyclical growth over the life, which is decided by stemcells in the follicle. Some studies have suggested that there are mesenchymal like cellsthe same as bone marrow stem cells, they express the markers of mesenchymal stemcells and have the characters of self-renew and multidirectional differentiatepotentiality, they could be induced into adipocytes, bone cells, cartilage cells, nervecells, so we call it as the follicle mesenchymal stem cell. We made the human hairfollicle mesenchymal stem cell (hHF-MSCs) as the object of the study in vitro, andinduced them by conditione medium of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes. The aim was toexplorate the potentiality of hHF-MSCs differentiation into cardiomyocyte-like cells,and lay the foundation for the next step of cell transplantation treatmenting of acutemyocardial infarction in animal experiment and clinical application.Firstly, we isolated and cultured hHF-MSCs from hair follicles, observed themorphological characteristics and the expression of related markers located in cellsurface. Secondly, we cultured the primary cardiomyocytes of neonatal rat, andpurified the myocardial cells by differential adherence and treated with mitomycin C,observed their growth characteristics and the characteristics of pulsatile and specificantigen expression. Finally, we established the system that induced hHF-MSCs tocardiomyocyte-like cells in vitro, which induced by cardiomyocyte conditionedmedium, and then identified the induced cells by immunofluorescence and flowcytometry.The experimental results were as follows:1. The hHF-MSCs from hair follicle expressed the specific surface markers of mesenchymal stem cells (CD73, CD90and CD105),and CD34,CD45å'ŒCK15wereno expressions. The cells showed the adipogenic and osteogenic differentiationcapacity.2. The neonatal rat cardiomyocytes showed a cluster-like growth andspontaneous pulsation; The purity and beating ability of myocardial cells wassignificantly improved after treating with mitomycin C.3. The hHF-MSCs induced by cardiomyocytes conditioned medium expressedthe cardiac Specific markers cTnI and connexin43.In summary, the conclusion we can obtain: the hHF-MSCs have the potential ofdifferentiation into cardiomyocyte-like cells, which could prepare for cellstransplantation of acute myocardial infarction in animal experiment.