Embryonic and foetal Islet-1 positive cells in human hearts are also positive to c-Kit

Submitted: 3 August 2011
Accepted: 13 October 2011
Published: 2 December 2011
Abstract Views: 1104
PDF: 486
Appendix: 191
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

During embryogenesis, the mammalian heart develops from a primitive heart tube originating from two bilateral primary heart fields located in the lateral plate mesoderm. Cells belongings to the pre-cardiac mesoderm will differentiate into early cardiac progenitors, which express early transcription factors which are also common to the Isl-1 positive cardiac progenitor cells isolated from the developing pharyngeal mesoderm and the foetal and post-natal mice hearts. A second population of cardiac progenitor cells positive to c-Kit has been abundantly isolated from adult hearts. Until now, these two populations have been considered two different sets of progenitor cells present in the heart in different stages of an individual life. In the present study we collected embryonic, foetal and infant hearts, and we tested the hypotheses that c-Kit positive cells, usually isolated from the adult heart, are also present in the intra-uterine life and persist in the adult heart after birth, and that foetal Isl-1 positive cells are also positive to c-Kit. Using immunohistochemistry we studied the temporal distribution of Isl-1 positive and c-Kit/CD105 double positive cells, and by immunofluorescence and confocal analysis we studied the co-localization of c-Kit and Isl-1 positive cells. The results indicated that cardiomyocytes and interstitial cells were positive for c-Kit from the 9th to the 19th gestational week, that cells positive for both c-Kit and CD105 appeared in the interstitium at the 17th gestational week and persisted in the postnatal age, and that the Isl-1 positive cells were a subset of the c-Kit positive population.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

Supporting Agencies

this research was supported by MIUR ex-60% Dott. Valentina Di Felice (Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca) 2007 and “Ministero della Salute” Ricerca Finalizzata 2007 Prof. Giovanni Zummo
C. Serradifalco, University of Palermo
BioNeC Department
P. Catanese, University of Palermo
BioNeC Department
L. Rizzuto, University of Palermo
BioNeC Department
F. Cappello, University of Palermo
BioNeC Department
V. Barresi, University of Messina
Department of Human Pathology
C. M. Nunnari, University of Messina
Department of Human Pathology
G. Zummo, University of Palermo
BioNeC Department
V. Di Felice, University of Palermo
BioNeC Department

How to Cite

Serradifalco, C., Catanese, P., Rizzuto, L., Cappello, F., Puleio, R., Barresi, V., … Di Felice, V. (2011). Embryonic and foetal Islet-1 positive cells in human hearts are also positive to c-Kit. European Journal of Histochemistry, 55(4), e41. https://doi.org/10.4081/ejh.2011.e41

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.

Publication Facts

Metric
This article
Other articles
Peer reviewers 
2
2.4

Reviewer profiles  N/A

Author statements

Author statements
This article
Other articles
Data availability 
N/A
16%
External funding 
N/A
32%
Competing interests 
Yes
11%
Metric
This journal
Other journals
Articles accepted 
57%
33%
Days to publication 
120
145

Indexed in

Editor & editorial board
profiles
Academic society 
N/A