A c-Kit (CD117) is a well-known cell surface marker for adult somatic stem cells. We harvested c-Kit-positive cardiac stem cells (CSCs) from adult rat hearts by performing magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) and subjected them to long-term bulk culture more than 40 times. We made 11 attempts to obtain c-Kit-positive cells from adult (6–8-month-old) rats. Our initial expectation was of obtaining cells with homogenous cardiac phenotypes. However, each CSC bulk culture expressed varying degrees of the genes and cell surface markers belonging to cardiac and other mesenchymal lineages. The results suggested that these CSCs retained multiple developmental potential to some extent. Consequently, we investigated these CSCs in detail, hoping to establish the regeneration method by using c-Kit-positive cardiac cells [1–12].
Copyright 2016, The Author(s).