Single-cell analysis of the fate of c-kit-positive bone marrow cells. (December 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Czarna, Anna; Sanada, Fumihiro; Matsuda, Alex; Kim, Junghyun; Signore, Sergio; Pereira, João; Sorrentino, Andrea; Kannappan, Ramaswamy; Cannatà, Antonio; Hosoda, Toru; Rota, Marcello; Crea, Filippo; Anversa, Piero; Leri, Annarosa
• Is Part Of: Npj regenerative medicine. Volume 2(2017)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 15
• Publication Date: 2017-12
• Subjects: Regenerative medicine -- Periodicals; 611.018
• DOI: 10.1038/s41536-017-0032-1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2057-3995

Abstract

Abstract The plasticity of c-kit-positive bone marrow cells (c-kit-BMCs) in tissues different from their organ of origin remains unclear. We tested the hypothesis that c-kit-BMCs are functionally heterogeneous and only a subgroup of these cells possesses cardiomyogenic potential. Population-based assays fall short of identifying the properties of individual stem cells, imposing on us the introduction of single cell-based approaches to track the fate of c-kit-BMCs in the injured heart; they included viral gene-tagging, multicolor clonal-marking and transcriptional profiling. Based on these strategies, we report that single mouse c-kit-BMCs expand clonally within the infarcted myocardium and differentiate into specialized cardiac cells. Newly-formed cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, fibroblasts and c-kit-BMCs showed in their genome common sites of viral integration, providing strong evidence in favor of the plasticity of a subset of BMCs expressing the c-kit receptor. Similarly, individual c-kit-BMCs, which were infected with multicolor reporters and injected in infarcted hearts, formed cardiomyocytes and vascular cells organized in clusters of similarly colored cells. The uniform distribution of fluorescent proteins in groups of specialized cells documented the polyclonal nature of myocardial regeneration. The transcriptional profile of myogenic c-kit-BMCs and whole c-kit-BMCs was defined by RNA sequencing. Genes relevant for engraftment, survival, migration, and differentiation were enriched in myogenic c-kit-BMCs, a cell subtype which could not be assigned to a specific hematopoietic lineage. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that the bone marrow comprises a category of cardiomyogenic, vasculogenic and/or fibrogenic c-kit-positive cells and a category of c-kit-positive cells that retains an undifferentiated state within the damaged heart. Cardiovascular biology: Variation among heart-forming bone marrow cells A select group of bone marrow cells (BMCs) with the capacity to regenerate the heart are not all the same. Working with mouse cells, a team led by Annarosa Leri used single cell-based analytical techniques to test whether all BMCs that express a cell surface marker called c-kit possess the ability to form new heart tissue. They found that these BMCs, despite their shared expression of c-kit, were not a uniform population. Only a subset could give rise to various cell lineages in the heart. Others remained in an undifferentiated state and retained their bone marrow identity, even within the damaged heart. The findings could help explain why researchers have reported such disparate results in the past when assessing the heart repairing potential of c-kit-positive BMCs.