Cardiac differentiation of bone marrow resident c-kit+ stem cells by L-carnitine increases through secretion of VEGF, IL6, IGF-1 and TGF-β

Abstract

Background: The idea of regenerating lost myocardium via cell therapies remains highly considerable. Also, C-kit+ stem/progenitor cells are represented to be suitable candidates for cardiac regeneration compared to other stem cells. A multitude of cytokines from these cells are known to give such multifunctional properties; however, associated mechanisms of these factors must still be absolutely understood. On the other hand, loss of cell survival and functionality, is one of the main problems in regenerative medicine. The aim of the present study was to investigate the in vitro effect of Lcarnitine (LC) on cardiac differentiation of c-kit+ cells via cytokines secretion assay.Methods: For this purpose, bone marrow resident-c-kit+ cells were enriched by MACS method, and were differentiated to cardiac cells in the absence (-LC) and presence of LC (+LC). Also, Characterization of enriched c-kit+ cells was performed using flow cytometry and immunocytochemistry. At the end of the treatment period, the cells were subjected to real-time PCR along with western blotting assay for gene and protein assessment, respectively. Then, culture medium was collected from both control (-LC) and experimental groups (+LC) for cytokine array.