Cardiomyocytes Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) Derived from Wharton’s Jelly

Coronary heart disease is the top three leading cause of death in Thailand fo r bot h me n an d women . Severa l ris k factor s hav e bee n show n t o pla y rol e i n th e pathogenesi s o f thi s disease , suc h a s smoking , obesity , hypertensio n an d hypercholesterolemia. Nowadays, many therapeutic methods have been developed to improve the quality of patients’ life. The cell therapy shows as a choice of therapeutic use . Mesenchyma l ste m cel l (MSC ) i s a kin d o f multipoten t ste m cel l tha t ca n differentiate into various cell types. Mesenchymal stem cells from wharton’s jelly, one source of the MSCs, have been shown as a potential cell source in therapeutic use due to their characteristics such as self-renewal, multiple cells and tissue types differentiation and represent a rich source of primitive cells. Nowadays, WJ-MSCs and their role in cardiogenic property are still of interest. In this study, we would like to demonstrate th e induce d differentiatio n o f WJ-MSC s int o cardiomyocyt e b y usin g 1 0 µ M o f 5-azacytidine. The morphology, cell growth, viability and differentiation characteristics are included in this study. The treated cells showed more spindle shaped and granular cytoplasmic content, however, these characters become disappear after 6 day of culture. Decreasing of cell numbers was shown in the 5-azacytidine treated group from day 1 to day 7 but little decrease of cellular viability analysis. The expression of cardiac specific markers have been shown from immunofluorescent study and realtime PCR analysis.