Research Article

Inhibition of G9a Histone Methyltransferase Converts Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Cardiac Competent Progenitors

Figure 6

Cardiac differentiation of bone marrow-derived PBCs. PBCs collected from MSC cultures pretreated with or without BIX01294 were aggregated by hanging drop for 4 days and then differentiated in 50% CCM following their transfer to tissue culture plastic. Thereafter, RNA was isolated from these cultures and analyzed for cardiac gene expression using real-time qPCR. As a comparative control, nontreated MSCs were also assayed by qPCR. As shown, BIX01294 exposure produced PBCs that exhibited significant upregulation of the early cardiac markers Nkx2.5, titin, and Actn2, as compared to PBCs obtained from BIX01294-negative cultures. In contrast, expression of the late cardiac marker cTnI was not stimulated, which indicates the conditions used in these assays were not sufficient to support complete myocyte differentiation. .