Selective Differentiation into Hematopoietic and Cardiac Cells from Pluripotent Stem Cells Based on the Expression of Cell Surface Markers

Abstract

Flk1-expressing (+) mesodermal cells are useful source for the generation of hematopoietic cells and cardiomyocytes from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). However, they have been reported as a heterogenous population that includes hematopoietic and cardiac progenitors. Therefore, to provide a method for a highly efficient production of hematopoietic cells and cardiomyocytes, cell surface markers are often used for separating these progenitors in Flk1+ cells. Our recent study has shown that the expression of coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR), a tight junction component molecule, could divide mouse and human PSC- and mouse embryo-derived Flk1+ cells into Flk1+CAR and Flk1+CAR+ cells. Flk1+CAR and Flk1+CAR+ cells efficiently differentiated into hematopoietic cells and cardiomyocytes, respectively. These results indicate that CAR is a novel cell surface marker for separating PSC-derived Flk1+ mesodermal cells into hematopoietic and cardiac progenitors. We herein describe a differentiation method from PSCs into hematopoietic cells and cardiomyocytes based on CAR expression.