Keywords

Cardiac muscle recovery, stem cell therapy, intercellular communication, gap junctions, cell culture and transfection, flow cytometry

Disciplines

Life Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences

Mentor

David L Geenen

Advisor

Kristin Renkema

Abstract

Adult somatic stem cell therapy can be beneficial for cardiac muscle recovery following injury to the heart. However, a common problem with various approaches to this therapy has been the early (< 24 hrs) loss of a large percentage of the implanted stem cells, which decreases their therapeutic potential. We have demonstrated that cell coupling occurs between stem and cardiac cells through Cx43 gap junctions.Thus, we hypothesize that gap junctions may act as conduits for molecular apoptotic signals from injured cardiac muscle cells that impair the viability of implanted stem cells ('Bystander Effect' ). In our initial experiments, we will use a fluorescently-tagged RNAi control oligo to transfect mouse bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (mBM- MSCs) and measure transfection efficiency with fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Additional studies will determine mBM-MSC Cx43 protein expression and the level of Cx43 protein down-regulation in the mBM-MSCs.

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