Isolating embryonic cardiac progenitors and cardiac myocytes by fluorescence-activated cell sorting

Abstract

Isolation of highly purified populations of embryonic cardiomyocytes enables the study of congenital cardiac phenotypes at the cellular level. Fluorescent-activated cell sorting (FACS) is normally used to isolate fluorescently tagged cells. Here we describe the isolation of differentiating mouse embryonic cardiac progenitors and cardiomyocytes at embryonic day (E) 9.5 and E13.5, respectively by FACS. Over 50,000 differentiating cardiac progenitors and 200,000 cardiomyocytes can be obtained in a single prep using the methods described.