Name: simultaneous isolation of high quality cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, and fibroblasts from an adult rat heart
Uploaded: 2017-05-19T14:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Simultaneous Isolation of High Quality Cardiomyocytes, Endothelial Cells, and Fibroblasts from an Adult Rat Heart at JoVE.com

The technical support of L. Rinaldi, S. Sch&#228;ffer, D. Reitz, H. Thomas and A. Weber is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also wish to thank Dr. E. Martinson for extensive proof reading and language editing of the manuscript. The study was supported by University of Giessen Anschubsfinanzierung grant to M. Aslam and D. G&#252;nd&#252;z.

The investigation conforms to the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals published by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH Publication No. 85-23 1985) and was approved by the local ethics committee of the University of Giessen. Adult male Wistar rats weighing 200 - 250 g were used in this study.
1. Autoclaving
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	<li>At least one day before the procedure is to be carried out, autoclave all surgical instruments, pipette tips, and Pasteur pipettes to be used in the isolation ...

<ol>
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In this article, a reproducible protocol for the isolation and culture of cardiac myocytes, endothelial cells, and fibroblasts is described. This protocol describes the simultaneous and high quality isolation of the major cell types of cardiac tissue, i.e. cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, and fibroblasts as opposed to just one cell type. A critical step in the isolation procedure is the proper digestion of the cardiac tissue. If the digestion is incomplete, a large number of myocytes may still be obtained but ...

Rodent models have long been used as tools to broaden our understanding of cardiovascular physiology in health and disease.1 Although these animal models allow us to understand the pathophysiology of a disease at the organ level and to analyze the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of various pharmacological agents used to treat cardiovascular diseases, understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cardiovascular disease development and the contribution of a particular cell type requires the use of in vitro cell culture models. For this purpose different immortalized cell lines from the cardiovascular system have been developed;2,3 however, freshly isolated primary cells are physiologically and functionally more relevant to living tissues and organisms.
The heart is a versatile organ containing all major types of cells of the cardiovascular system, and the rat heart is still a commonly used model for the understanding of cardiovascular physiology. During the last few decades, different methods for the isolation of individual cell types from cardiac tissue have been described;4,5,6,7 however, these methods focus only on the isolation of one specific cell type resulting in the loss of other types of cells that can no longer be used for cellular analysis. Here, an optimized protocol is described that enables the simultaneous and high quality isolation of the major cell types of cardiac tissue, i.e. cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, and fibroblasts. All of these cell types can be used in different experimental setups8,9,10 and for the analysis of cell-cell interactions from the same animal.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="717">
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			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:299px;">anti-vWF</td>
			<td style="width:133px;">Santa Cruz Biotech.</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">SC-14014</td>
			<td style="width:167px;"></td>
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			<td height="21" style="height:21px;">Calcium chloride</td>
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			<td style="width:119px;">102378</td>
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			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:299px;">Endothelial cell medium MV2</td>
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			<td style="width:119px;">11150059</td>
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			<td style="width:119px;">T061</td>
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			<td style="width:119px;">63138</td>
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			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:299px;">Mouse anti-rat CD31 antibody (TLD-3A12)</td>
			<td style="width:133px;">Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">MA1-81051</td>
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			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:299px;">NaCl solution (0.9%), Sterile</td>
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			<td style="width:119px;">30820080</td>
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		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:299px;">Pan mouse IgG beads (Dynabeads)</td>
			<td style="width:133px;">Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">11041</td>
			<td></td>
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			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:299px;">Paraformaldehyde (PFA) 4% Solution</td>
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			<td>sc-281692</td>
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			<td style="width:119px;">15070-063</td>
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			<td style="width:119px;">P04-36500</td>
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</table>

simultaneous isolation of high quality cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, and fibroblasts from an adult rat heart

The rat is an important animal model used in cardiovascular research, and rat cardiac cells are used routinely for in vitro analysis of the molecular mechanisms of cardiovascular disease progression such as cardiac hypertrophy, fibrosis, and atherosclerosis. Although several attempts with variable success have been made to develop immortalized cell lines from the cardiovascular system to understand these cellular mechanisms, primary cells offer a more natural and close to in vivo environment for such studies. Therefore, different laboratories working on a particular cell type have developed protocols to isolate individual types of rat cardiac cells of interest. A protocol that allows the isolation of more than one cell type, however, is missing. Here an optimized protocol is described that allows the isolation of high-quality major cardiac cell types (cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, and fibroblasts) from a single preparation and enables their use for cellular analyses. This permits the most efficient use of available resources, which may save time and reduce research costs.

The isolation procedure results in a yield of 70 - 80% viable, rod-shaped, striated cardiomyocytes (Figures 2A and 2C) that can be used for planned experiments. In our laboratory cardiomyocytes are routinely used for analysis of Ca2+ signaling. Figure 5A shows intracellular calcium [Ca2+]i oscillations in response to ischemia/reperfusion in cardiomyocytes loaded with Fura-AM (5 &#181;M). F...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Simultaneous Isolation of High Quality Cardiomyocytes, Endothelial Cells, and Fibroblasts from an Adult Rat Heart at JoVE.com

Simultaneous Isolation of High Quality Cardiomyocytes, Endothelial Cells, and Fibroblasts from an Adult Rat Heart

Several protocols have been developed and described for the isolation of different cardiac cell types from a rat heart. Here, an optimized protocol is described that allows the isolation of high-quality major cardiac cell types (cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, and fibroblasts) from a single preparation, reducing the experimental costs.

The rat is an important animal model used in cardiovascular research, and rat cardiac cells are used routinely for in vitro analysis of the molecular ...

The overall goal of this procedure is to simultaneously isolate viable cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, and fibroblasts from the rat heart for their individual in vitro analyses. This method can help answer key questions in the cardiovascular field about the signaling mechanisms involved in cardiac hypertrophy, ischemia reperfusion injury, endothelial function, and cardiac fibrosis. The main advantage of this technique is that all of the major cardiac cells can be isolated simultaneously, potentially reducing the associated research costs and experimental animal numbers.After one distilled water and one 50 milliliter Powell medium flush, replace the medium with 80 milliliters of fresh Powell medium, and use a glass Pasteur pipette from the glass cylinder to continuously perfuse the medium with carbogen. Next, use two pairs of thin curved forceps to mount a freshly harvested rat heart via the aorta onto the Langendorff perfusion system, and place the end of the perfusion system cannula between the first aortic branch and the aortic valve. Fix the aorta with a crocodile clamp.Open the valve of the cannula, and then fix the heart with a surgical suture. Allow 35 milliliters of the perfusion medium to pass through the heart drop wise, removing any residual blood. Place the collecting funnel under the heart, and start the peristaltic pump to recirculate the perfusion medium from the collecting funnel to the reservoir.Add collagenase solution to the perfusion medium, and perfuse the heart with the recirculating collagenase solution for 30 minutes. At the end of the digestion, use scissors to remove the heart from the Langendorff system and place it in a glass Petri dish. Now remove both atria and any leftover fatty tissue from the heart.To avoid epithelial cell contamination, use two forceps to carefully peel away the pericardium. Cut the heart down the middle, and place the halves into the tissue chopper. Mince the heart two to three times, and transfer the tissue pieces into a 15 milliliter conical tube containing 12 milliliters of digestion buffer from the Langendorff perfusion.Digest the tissue fragments in a water bath for five to 10 minutes, occasionally mixing with a five milliliter disposable plastic pipette. Then filter the cell suspension through a 100 micrometer sieve into a 50 milliliter conical tube. Flush the perfusion system with a minimum of one liter of distilled water followed by 100 milliliters of 0.1 normal sodium hydroxide for 30 minutes, then flush the system with another two to three liters of distilled water, and dry the apparatus with flushed air.Collect the filtered cells by centrifugation, and use a disposable pipette to carefully transfer the endothelial cell and fibroblast containing supernatant into a new 50 milliliter tube. Resuspend the pellet in six milliliters of calcium solution one. After one minute, collect the cells with a second centrifugation, and resuspend the pellet in six milliliters of calcium solution two.After one minute, dilute the cell suspension with the addition of 12 milliliters of calcium solution three, and mix well by gentle tilting. After another centrifugation, resuspend the pellet in 20 milliliters of pre-warmed CCT medium. Then aliquot one milliliter of cells to each of 20 sterile 35 millimeter cell culture dishes pre-coated with laminin, and place the cells in a carbon dioxide free cell culture incubator, replacing the medium with two milliliters of fresh CCT medium to remove any dead cells after two hours.Now centrifuge the endothelial cell and fibroblast containing supernatant, and resuspend the pellet in 1.5 milliliters of endothelial cell isolation buffer. Transfer the cells to a two milliliter sample tube, and add mouse anti-rat CD31 antibody to the cells for a 30 minute incubation at four degrees Celsius with end to end rotation. At the end of the incubation, add Pan anti-mouse IGG beads for a 20 in incubation at four degrees Celsius, with end to end rotation.At the end of the bead incubation, place the cells in a magnetic rack for two minutes, and use a one milliliters pipette to carefully remove the mostly fibroblast containing supernatant. See the fibroblasts on a 10 centimeter culture dish containing 10 milliliters of fibroblast cell culture medium, and place the cells in a cell culture incubator at 37 degrees Celsius and 5%carbon dioxide for one hour. Next, add one milliliter of wash buffer to the tube of endothelial cells and cap the tube.Gently shake the cells four to five times to resuspend the beads. Then return the tube to the magnet, and remove the wash buffer after one minute. After the last wash, replace the wash buffer with one milliliter of MV2 endothelial cell culture medium, and seed the endothelial cells into a single well of a 12 well plate, for their overnight culture in the cell culture incubator.At the end of the fibroblast incubation, wash the attached cells with an appropriate volume of pre-warmed PBS two to three times. Then, add pre-warmed fresh fibroblast cell culture medium to the cells, and return the fibroblasts to the cell culture incubator. The next morning, replace the supernatant on the endothelial cell culture with fresh endothelial cell culture medium, and return the cells to the incubator, replacing the medium every two to three days, until semi-confluency.Then wash the culture of attached fibroblast cells with fresh pre-warmed PBS as just demonstrated, and feed the cells with fresh pre-warmed medium. The cardiomyocyte isolation procedure yields a 70 to 80%pure, viable, rod-shaped, striated cardiac cell population. Intracellular calcium oscillation analysis of isolated cardiomyocytes loaded with fura AM, in response to ischemia repurfusion in cardiomyocytes can then be performed, as well as analysis of the changes in calcium signaling in magnetic bead isolated endothelial cells and fibroblasts, after the addition of ATP.Once mastered, this technique can be completed in three hours if it performed properly. While attempting this procedure, it is important to remember to set up this perfusion system properly, and to promptly fix the heart in the system as soon as it is ready. After it's development, this technique paved the way for researchers in the field of cardiovascular research to explore the signaling involved in different cardiovascular pathophysiologies.After watching this video, you should have a good understanding of the basic principals of cardiac cell isolation and culture. Don't forget that working with surgical instruments and cell culture reagents can be extremely hazardous, and that precautions, such as careful usage of the instruments and the use of gloves should always be taken while performing this procedure.

simultaneous-isolation-high-quality-cardiomyocytes-endothelial-cells

Research

JoVE Journal

Biology

Primary Culture of Adult Rat Heart Myocytes

Cultured primary adult rodent heart cells are an important model system for cardiovascular research. Nevertheless, establishment of robust, viable cultured adult myocytes can be a technically challenging, rate-limiting step for many researchers. Here we described a protocol to obtain a high yield of adult rat heart myocytes that remain viable in culture for several days. The heart is isolated and perfused with collagenase and protease under low Ca2+ conditions to recover single myocytes. Ca2+-tolerant cells are obtained by stepwise increases in extracellular Ca2+ concentration in three subsequent wash steps. Cells are filtered, resuspended in culture medium, and plated on laminin coated slips. Cultured myocytes obtained using this protocol are viable for up to four days and are suitable for most experiments including electrophysiology, biochemistry, imaging and molecular biology.

In this paper, we described a typical way to isolate and culture adult rat heart myocytes. Collagenase and protease are used to digest and isolate single myocytes. Myocytes cultured follow this protocol meet most experiment requirements.

Cultured primary adult rodent heart cells are an important model system for cardiovascular research.  Nevertheless, establishment of robust, viable ...

Isolation and Large Scale Expansion of Adult Human Endothelial Colony Forming Progenitor Cells

This paper introduces a novel recovery strategy for endothelial colony forming progenitor cells (ECFCs) from heparinized but otherwise unmanipulated adult human peripheral blood within a mean of 12 days. After large scale expansion &gt;1x108 ECFCs can be obtained for further tests. Advantageously by using pHPL the contact of human cells with bovine serum antigens can be excluded. By flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry the isolated cells can be characterized as ECFC and their in vitro functionality to form vascular like structures can be tested in a matrigel assay. Further these cells can be subcutaneously injected in a mouse model to form functional, perfused vessels in vivo. After long term expansion and cryopreservation proliferation, function and genomic stability appear to be preserved. 3,4
This animal-protein free isolation and expansion method is easily applicable to generate a large quantity of ECFCs.

Endothelial colony forming progenitor cells (ECFCs) are a promising tool to study vascular homeostasis and repair.1,2 This paper introduces a novel animal-serum free method for isolation and expansion of ECFC from heparinised adult human peripheral blood with pooled human platelet lysate (pHPL) diminishing the risk of anti-bovine immunisation.

This paper introduces a novel recovery strategy for endothelial colony forming progenitor cells (ECFCs) from heparinized but otherwise unmanipulated adult ...

Isolation and Culture of Pulmonary Endothelial Cells from Neonatal Mice

Endothelial cells provide a useful research model in many areas of vascular biology. Since its first isolation 1, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) have shown to be convenient, easy to obtain and culture, and thus are the most widely studied endothelial cells. However, for research focused on processes like angiogenesis, permeability or many others, microvascular endothelial cells (ECs) are a much more physiologically relevant model to study 2. Furthermore, ECs isolated from knockout mice provide a useful tool for analysis of protein function ex vivo. Several approaches to isolate and culture microvascular ECs of different origin have been reported to date 3-7, but consistent isolation and culture of pure ECs is still a major technical problem in many laboratories. Here, we provide a step-by-step protocol on a reliable and relatively simple method of isolating and culturing mouse lung endothelial cells (MLECs). In this approach, lung tissue obtained from 6- to 8-day old pups is first cut into pieces, digested with collagenase/dispase (C/D) solution and dispersed mechanically into single-cell suspension. MLECS are purified from cell suspension using positive selection with anti-PECAM-1 antibody conjugated to Dynabeads using a Magnetic Particle Concentrator (MPC). Such purified cells are cultured on gelatin-coated tissue culture (TC) dishes until they become confluent. At that point, cells are further purified using Dynabeads coupled to anti-ICAM-2 antibody. MLECs obtained with this protocol exhibit a cobblestone phenotype, as visualized by phase-contrast light microscopy, and their endothelial phenotype has been confirmed using FACS analysis with anti-VE-cadherin 8 and anti-VEGFR2 9 antibodies and immunofluorescent staining of VE-cadherin. In our hands, this two-step isolation procedure consistently and reliably yields a pure population of MLECs, which can be further cultured. This method will enable researchers to take advantage of the growing number of knockout and transgenic mice to directly correlate in vivo studies with results of in vitro experiments performed on isolated MLECs and thus help to reveal molecular mechanisms of vascular phenotypes observed in vivo.

Here, we describe a protocol for isolation and culture of murine pulmonary endothelial cells. This method comprises mechanic and enzymatic lung tissue dissociation as well as a 2-step purification process using anti-PECAM-1 and anti-ICAM-2 antibodies conjugated to magnetic beads, which produces a pure endothelial cell population of mostly microvascular origin.

Endothelial cells provide a useful research model in many areas of vascular biology. Since its first isolation 1, human umbilical vein endothelial cells ...

Selecting and Isolating Colonies of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Reprogrammed from Adult Fibroblasts

Herein we present a protocol of reprogramming human adult fibroblasts into human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) using retroviral vectors encoding Oct3/4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-myc (OSKM) in the presence of sodium butyrate 1-3. We used this method to reprogram late passage (&gt;p10) human adult fibroblasts derived from Friedreich's ataxia patient (GM03665, Coriell Repository). The reprogramming approach includes highly efficient transduction protocol using repetitive centrifugation of fibroblasts in the presence of virus-containing media. The reprogrammed hiPSC colonies were identified using live immunostaining for Tra-1-81, a surface marker of pluripotent cells, separated from non-reprogrammed fibroblasts and manually passaged 4,5. These hiPSC were then transferred to Matrigel plates and grown in feeder-free conditions, directly from the reprogramming plate. Starting from the first passage, hiPSC colonies demonstrate characteristic hES-like morphology. Using this protocol more than 70% of selected colonies can be successfully expanded and established into cell lines. The established hiPSC lines displayed characteristic pluripotency markers including surface markers TRA-1-60 and SSEA-4, as well as nuclear markers Oct3/4, Sox2 and Nanog. 
The protocol presented here has been established and tested using adult fibroblasts obtained from Friedreich's ataxia patients and control individuals 6, human newborn fibroblasts, as well as human keratinocytes.

We present a protocol for efficient reprogramming of human somatic cells into human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) using retroviral vectors encoding Oct3/4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-myc (OSKM) and identification of correctly reprogrammed hiPSC by live staining with Tra-1-81 antibody.

Herein we present a protocol of reprogramming human adult fibroblasts into human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) using retroviral vectors encoding ...

Isolation of Embryonic Ventricular Endothelial Cells

Cell culture has greatly enhanced our ability to assess individual populations of cells under myriad culture conditions. While immortalized cell lines offer significant advantages for their ease of use, these cell lines are unavailable for all potential cell types. By isolating primary cells from a specific region of interest, particularly from a transgenic mouse, more nuanced studies can be performed. The basic technique involves dissecting the organ or partial organ of interest (e.g. the heart or a specific region of the heart) and dissociating the organ to single cells. These cells are then incubated with magnetic beads conjugated to an antibody that recognizes the cell type of interest. The cells of interest can then be isolated with the use of a magnet, with a short trypsin incubation dissociating the cells from the beads. These isolated cells can then be cultured and analyzed as desired. This technique was originally designed for adult mouse organs but can be easily scaled down for use with embryonic organs, as demonstrated herein. Because our interest is in the developing coronary vasculature, we wanted to study this population of cells during specific embryonic stages. Thus, the original protocol had to be modified to be compatible with the small size of the embryonic ventricles and the low potential yield of endothelial cells at these developmental stages. Utilizing this scaled-down approach, we have assessed coronary plexus remodeling in transgenic embryonic ventricular endothelial cells.

Primary cell culture is a useful technique for analyzing specific populations of cells, particularly from transgenic mouse embryos at specific developmental stages. Herein, embryonic ventricles are dissected and dissociated, and antibody-conjugated beads recognize and separate out the endothelial cells for further analysis.

Cell culture has greatly enhanced our ability to assess individual populations of cells under myriad culture conditions. While immortalized cell lines ...

Isolation of Murine Valve Endothelial Cells

Normal valve structures consist of stratified layers of specialized extracellular matrix (ECM) interspersed with valve interstitial cells (VICs) and surrounded by a monolayer of valve endothelial cells (VECs). VECs play essential roles in establishing the valve structures during embryonic development, and are important for maintaining life-long valve integrity and function. In contrast to a continuous endothelium over the surface of healthy valve leaflets, VEC disruption is commonly observed in malfunctioning valves and is associated with pathological processes that promote valve disease and dysfunction. Despite the clinical relevance, focused studies determining the contribution of VECs to development and disease processes are limited. The isolation of VECs from animal models would allow for cell-specific experimentation. VECs have been isolated from large animal adult models but due to their small population size, fragileness, and lack of specific markers, no reports of VEC isolations in embryos or adult small animal models have been reported. Here we describe a novel method that allows for the direct isolation of VECs from mice at embryonic and adult stages. Utilizing the Tie2-GFP reporter model that labels all endothelial cells with Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), we have been successful in isolating GFP-positive (and negative) cells from the semilunar and atrioventricular valve regions using fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS). Isolated GFP-positive VECs are enriched for endothelial markers, including CD31 and von Willebrand Factor (vWF), and retain endothelial cell expression when cultured; while, GFP-negative cells exhibit molecular profiles and cell shapes consistent with VIC phenotypes. The ability to isolate embryonic and adult murine VECs allows for previously unattainable molecular and functional studies to be carried out on a specific valve cell population, which will greatly improve our understanding of valve development and disease mechanisms.

The ability to isolate heart valve endothelial cells (VECs) is critical for understanding mechanisms of valve development, maintenance, and disease. Here we describe the isolation of VECs from embryonic and adult Tie2-GFP mice using FACS that will allow for studies determining the contribution of VECs in developmental and disease processes.

Normal valve structures consist of stratified layers of specialized extracellular matrix (ECM) interspersed with valve interstitial cells (VICs) and ...

Isolation, Culture and Transduction of Adult Mouse Cardiomyocytes

Cultured cardiomyocytes can be used to study cardiomyocyte biology using techniques that are complementary to in vivo systems. For example, the purity and accessibility of in vitro culture enables fine control over biochemical analyses, live imaging, and electrophysiology. Long-term culture of cardiomyocytes offers access to additional experimental approaches that cannot be completed in short term cultures. For example, the in vitro investigation of dedifferentiation, cell cycle re-entry, and cell division has thus far largely been restricted to rat cardiomyocytes, which appear to be more robust in long-term culture. However, the availability of a rich toolset of transgenic mouse lines and well-developed disease models make mouse systems attractive for cardiac research. Although several reports exist of adult mouse cardiomyocyte isolation, few studies demonstrate their long-term culture. Presented here, is a step-by-step method for the isolation and long-term culture of adult mouse cardiomyocytes. First, retrograde Langendorff perfusion is used to efficiently digest the heart with proteases, followed by gravity sedimentation purification. After a period of dedifferentiation following isolation, the cells gradually attach to the culture and can be cultured for weeks. Adenovirus cell lysate is used to efficiently transduce the isolated cardiomyocytes. These methods provide a simple, yet powerful model system to study cardiac biology.

This protocol describes a step-by-step method for the reproducible isolation and long-term culture of adult mouse cardiomyocytes with high yield, purity, and viability.

Cultured cardiomyocytes can be used to study cardiomyocyte biology using techniques that are complementary to in vivo systems. For example, the purity and ...

Isolation, Characterization, and Differentiation of Cardiac Stem Cells from the Adult Mouse Heart

Myocardial infarction (MI) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality around the world. A major goal of regenerative medicine is to replenish the dead myocardium after MI. Although several strategies have been used to regenerate myocardium, stem cell therapy remains a major approach to replenish the dead myocardium of an MI heart. Accumulating evidence suggests the presence of resident cardiac stem cells (CSCs) in the adult heart and their endocrine and/or paracrine effects on cardiac regeneration. However, CSC isolation and their characterization and differentiation toward myocardial cells, especially cardiomyocytes, remains a technical challenge. In the present study, we provided a simple method for the isolation, characterization, and differentiation of CSCs from the adult mouse heart. Here, we describe a density gradient method for the isolation of CSCs, where the heart is digested by a 0.2% collagenase II solution. To characterize the isolated CSCs, we evaluated the expression of CSCs/cardiac markers Sca-1, NKX2-5, and GATA4, and pluripotency/stemness markers OCT4, SOX2, and Nanog. We also determined the proliferation potential of isolated CSCs by culturing them in a Petri dish and assessing the expression of the proliferation marker Ki-67. For evaluating the differentiation potential of CSCs, we selected seven- to ten-days cultured CSCs. We transferred them to a new plate with a cardiomyocyte differentiation medium. They are incubated in a cell culture incubator for 12 days, while the differentiation medium is changed every three days. The differentiated CSCs express cardiomyocyte-specific markers: actinin and troponin I. Thus, CSCs isolated with this protocol have stemness and cardiac markers, and they have a potential for proliferation and differentiation toward cardiomyocyte lineage.

The overall goal of this article is to standardize the protocol for the isolation, characterization, and differentiation of cardiac stem cells (CSCs) from the adult mouse heart. Here, we describe a density gradient centrifugation method to isolate murine CSCs and elaborated methods for CSC culture, proliferation, and differentiation into cardiomyocytes.

Myocardial infarction (MI) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality around the world. A major goal of regenerative medicine is to replenish the dead ...

Isolation and Characterization of Adult Cardiac Fibroblasts and Myofibroblasts

Cardiac fibrosis in response to injury is a physiological response to wound healing. Efforts have been made to study and target fibroblast subtypes that mitigate fibrosis. However, fibroblast research has been hindered due to the lack of universally acceptable fibroblast markers to identify quiescent as well as activated fibroblasts. Fibroblasts are a heterogenous cell population, making them difficult to isolate and characterize. The presented protocol describes three different methods to enrich fibroblasts and myofibroblasts from uninjured and injured mouse hearts. Using a standard and reliable protocol to isolate fibroblasts will enable the study of their roles in homeostasis as well as fibrosis modulation.

Obtaining a pure population of fibroblasts is crucial to studying their role in wound repair and fibrosis. Described here is a detailed method to isolate fibroblasts and myofibroblasts from uninjured and injured mouse hearts followed by characterization of their purity and functionality by immunofluorescence, RTPCR, fluorescence-assisted cell sorting, and collagen gel contraction.

Cardiac fibrosis in response to injury is a physiological response to wound healing. Efforts have been made to study and target fibroblast subtypes that ...

Isolation of Cardiomyocytes from Fixed Hearts for Immunocytochemistry and Ploidy Analysis

The adult mammalian heart is composed of various cell types including cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells and fibroblasts. Since it is difficult to reliably identify nuclei of cardiomyocytes on histological sections, many groups rely on isolating viable cardiomyocytes prior to fixation to perform immunostaining. However, these live cardiomyocyte isolation techniques require optimization to maximize the yield, viability and quality of the samples, with inherent fluctuations from sample to sample despite maximum optimization. Here, we report a reproducible protocol, involving fixation prior to enzymatic digestion of the heart, which leads to maximum yield while preserving the in vivo morphology of individual cardiomyocytes. We further developed an automated analysis platform to determine the number of nuclei and DNA content per nucleus for individual cardiomyocytes. After exposing the chest cavity, the heart was arrested in diastole by perfusion with 60 mM KCl in PBS. Next, the heart was fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde (PFA) solution, and then digested with 60 mg/mL collagenase solution. After digestions, cells were singularized by trituration, and the cardiomyocyte fraction was enriched via differential centrifugation. Isolated cardiomyocytes were stained for Troponin T and &#945;-actinin to assess purity of the obtained population. Furthermore, we developed an image analysis platform to determine cardiomyocyte nucleation and ploidy status following DAPI staining. Image based ploidy assessments led to consistent and reproducible results. Thus, with this protocol, it is possible to preserve native morphology of individual cardiomyocytes to allow immunocytochemistry and DNA content analysis while achieving maximum yield.

The goal of this work is to develop a method to reproducibly isolate cardiomyocytes from the adult heart and measure DNA content and nucleation.

The adult mammalian heart is composed of various cell types including cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells and fibroblasts. Since it is difficult to reliably ...