Vitamin C enhanced myocardial differentiation of dedifferentiated fat cells

AIM: In order to observe the myocardial differentiation capacity of the dedifferentiated fat (DFAT) cells treated with vitamin C in vitro. METHODS: DFAT cells were dedifferentiated from the mature rat adipocytes with ceiling adherent culture. The DFAT cells of passage 3 were used in the study. Vitamin C and/or neonatal rat heart tissue lysate were added into the culture medium to induce myocardial differentiation for 3 weeks. The cell morphology was observed under microscope. The myocardial-specific markers, such as cTnT, GATA-4 and NKx2.5, were examined by the methods of immunofluorescence, PCR and Western blot. RESULTS: Mature rat adipocytes dedifferentiated into fibroblast-like DFAT cells after ceiling adherent culture. The DFAT cells spontaneously differentiated into cardiomyocyte-like cells under normal culture condition with a low incidence. After treated with neonatal rat heart cell lysate, the DFAT cells became cardiomyocyte-like cells that had bigger size, longer shape and myotubule-structure. The expression of cTnT, GATA-4 and NKx2.5 was remarkably increased at both mRNA and protein levels as compared with the normal cultured DFAT cells. The expression of cTnT, GATA-4 and NKx2.5 was further increased in DFAT cells after treating with vitamin C. No spontaneous beating cell was observed. CONCLUSION: Vitamin C enhances the differentiation of DFAT cells into cardiomyocyte-like cells.