FUNCTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF Ca~(2+) SIGNALINGPATHWAYS IN MOUSE EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS DURINGDIFFERENTIATION TO CARDIOMYOCYTES

摘要

Embryonic stem (ES) cells are pluripotent cells and able to differentiate in vitro into a variety of cell types including cardiac myocytes (1,2). Many studies of derived cardiomyocytes from mouse ES cells provide important information for understanding the early stages of development in heart, such as the expression of cardiac-specific genes, proteins, receptors and functional development of ion channels (2, 3, 4). Cardiomyocytes derived from mouse ES cells have been demonstrated a time-dependent expression of ion channels and signal transduction pathways in electrophysiological studies (3). Several recent studies have also suggested that cardiomyocytes derived from ES cells would be useful for the cell transplantation therapy in defective heart diseases (5, 6). However, the detailed mechanisms for functional developments of Ca~(2+) signaling tool kits, such as Ca~(2+) channels, Na~+/K~+ ATPase and Na7 Ca~(2+) exchangers have not been well understood. In this study, we focus the functional developments of Ca~(2+) signaling pathways in mouse ES cells during differentiation to cardiomyocytes.