Differentiation of Amniotic Membrane Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Cardiomyocytes and its Characteristics

  Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have high potential in regenerative medicine based on their renewal properties and multilinearity differentiation capacity. MSCs have the ability to differentiate to osteoblasts, adipocytes, chondrocytes, cardiomyocytes, nerve cells, and fibroblasts. These cells have many sources such as bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, and amniotic membrane. Amniotic membrane is a postnatal organ, which does not require an invasive method for procurement. The immunomodulatory properties of MSCs make these cells the primary choice for allotransplantation and xenotransplantation.

  In this study, MSCs were isolated from the amniotic membrane, and their surface markers were identified using flow cytometry. The cells were differentiated to osteoblasts, adipocytes and cardiomyocytes using differentiation medium. GAP-43 and α-actin were studied with immunofluorescence and the expressions of related genes (GATA-4 and C-TNT) were assayed by real-time polymerase chain reaction.

The results confirmed the differentiation of MCS to cardiomyocytes. The expression level of GATA-4 and C-TNT was higher than that of the control. The results of the present study suggested that differentiated human amniotic MSC possessed some characteristics of cardiomyocytes.

Therefore, according to the results, the amniotic membrane is a suitable source of mesenchymal cells for differentiation into cardiomyocyte cells.