Human embryonic germ cells (hEGCs) are stem cells cultured from primordial germ cells, which reside in human embryonic genital ridges in vivo. In this study, hEGCs were induced to differentiate into cardiomyocytes by treatment with ascorbic acid in vitro and the effects of hEGC transplantation on rat models of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) were investigated. hEGCs were incubated with differentiation medium containing ascorbic acid at various concentrations. Levels of GATA-4 expression were measured to identify the optimal concentration of the inductor. Immunofluorescence microscopy was used to detect the expression of Cx43 on the induced cells. The hEGCs were injected into the myocardium of rats with AMI. The expression levels of MAB1281 and GATA-4 were used to indicate the survival, migration, distribution and differentiation of transplanted cells. The results revealed the positive expression of GATA-4, Cx43 and cardiac troponin T (cTnT) in differentiated cells, and immunocytochemistry showed that transplanted cells highly expressed GATA-4 and MAB1281. hEGCs were successfully induced to differentiate into cardiomyocytes by ascorbic acid in optimal concentrations in vitro and the transplanted hEGCs survived and differentiated into cardiomyocytes.
Keywords: cell transplantation; human embryonic germ cell; myocardial infarction.