Effects of Serial Passage on the Characteristics and Cardiac and Neural Differentiation of Human Umbilical Cord Wharton’s Jelly-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Figure 5

Morphology and expression of cardiac-specific genes and protein in WJ MSCs (Wharton’s jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells) in the early and middle phases after cardiac induction. (a-b) After being treated with 5-Aza for 14 days, cardiomyocyte-like cells with a stick-like morphology were found in induced P7 and P14 cells. Bar: 100 μm. (c) The gene expression of GATA4 and Nkx2.5 was upregulated after cardiac induction. (d) No α-actinin protein expression was detected in normal P7 and P14 WJ MSCs (P7 control and P14 control). However, α-actinin protein expression appeared in the induced cells (induced P7 and induced P14). (e) Semiquantified analysis of western blot results showed that α-actinin protein expression in the group of induced P7 was significantly higher than induced P14 (), which indicated that serial passage significantly decreased the cardiac differentiation capability of WJ MSCs.

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