control siRNA 40 nM). Membrane potential, BKCa and IKir currents were recorded in human cardiac c-kit+ progenitor cells transfected with siRNA molecules. proliferation and migration. Inhibition of IKir with Ba2+ had no effect on cell proliferation, while enhanced cell mobility. Silencing KCa.1.1 reduced cell proliferation by accumulating the cells at G0/G1 phase and decreased cell mobility. Interestingly, silencing Kir2.1 increased the cell migration without affecting cell cycling progression. These results demonstrate the novel information that blockade or silence of BKCa channels, but not INa.TTX channels, decreases cell cycling progression and mobility, whereas inhibition of Kir2.1 channels increases cell mobility without affecting cell cycling progression in human cardiac c-kit+ progenitor cells. Introduction In addition to cardiac myocytes and 3-Methylcytidine fibroblasts, cardiac stem cells with high growth potential, clonogenicity and pluripotency have been reported in mammalian hearts. Based on the expression of cell surface markers, cardiac stem cells have been classified into different subgroups, including side population, c-kit+, Sca-1+, Islet 1+, SSEA-1+ [1C5]. Human cardiac c-kit+ progenitor cells are one of the dominating members in human being cardiac stem cell family. C-kit, also known as CD117 or stem cell growth element, is the cell surface marker that has been utilized 3-Methylcytidine for stem cell isolation and enrichment from different sources [3, 6C9]. It has been reported that human being cardiac c-kit+ progenitor cells have the capability to differentiate into three cardiac lineages, i.e. cardiomyocytes, clean muscle mass and endothelial cells [10C12]. The activation of c-kit+ progenitor cell growth or injection of expanded c-kit+ progenitor cells to the infarct area has been reported to improve cardiac repair, heart function and survival after myocardial infarction [13, 14]. It is well recognized 3-Methylcytidine that ion channels play a crucial role in controlling electrophysiology and excitation-contraction coupling in cardiomyocytes in the heart. Our recent study has shown that ion channels regulate cell cycling progression in human being cardiac fibroblasts [15]. Although we shown that a large conductance Ca2+-triggered K+ current (BKCa), an inwardly-rectifying K+ current (IKir), and a voltage-gated tetrodotoxin-sensitive Na+ currents (INa.TTX), were heterogeneously expressed in most (61C86%) of human being cardiac c-kit+ progenitor cells [16], the potential physiological roles of these channels are not understood. The present study was to investigate the roles of these functional ion channels in regulating cell cycling progression and mobility in human being cardiac c-kit+ progenitor cells with the methods including cell proliferation and migration assays, circulation cytometry, siRNA, RT-PCR, and European blot analysis. Materials and Methods Cell culture Human being cardiac c-kit+ cells were isolated from atrial specimens from coronary artery bypass surgery with the revised procedure as explained previously [3, 11, 16], and the procedure of cells collection was authorized by the Ethics Committee of the University or college of Hong Kong (UW-10-174, Mouse monoclonal to S100B S1 File), with written consent from individuals as explained previously [16]. In the previous report, we shown that human being cardiac c-kit+ cells expressing the stem cell markers CD29 and CD105 were 99%, in which the hematopoietic stem cell markers CD34 and CD45, and adult somatic cell marker CD8A were present in a very limited human population ( 10%), and hematopoietic stem cell markers CD34 and CD45 were mostly absent [16], consistent with the previous reports by additional research organizations [3, 11]. The cells were cultured in Iscoves Modified Dulbeccos Medium (IMDM) comprising 10% FBS, 100 U/ml penicillin, 100 g/ml streptomycin, 2 mM L-glutamine, 0.1 mM 2-mercaptoethanol, 5 ng/ml human being fundamental fibroblast growth element, 5 ng/ml human being epidermal growth element [16]. Chemicals and reagents Mouse monoclonal anti-KCa1.1 and anti-Kir2.1 antibodies were from UC Davis (www.neuromab.org). Goat anti-mouse IgG horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and mouse monoclonal anti-GAPDH antibodies were from Santa-Cruz Biotechnology Inc. (Santa Cruz, CA http://www.scbt.com). Epithelial growth factor (EGF), fundamental fibroblast growth element (bFGF), propidium iodide (PI), lipofectamine 2000, Triton X-100 and Tween 20 were purchased from Invitrogen (Invitrogen, Hong Kong, China). [3H]-thymidine was from GE Healthcare Existence Sciences (Hong Kong, China). Additional reagents were from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA). Whole-cell patch recording Human being cardiac c-kit+ progenitor cells (passages 2C4) were trypsinized when cell grew to 70C80% confluence utilized for ionic current recordings having a whole-cell patch voltage-clamp technique (at space temp, 23C25C) using an EPC-9 amplifier and Pulse software (Heka, Lambrecht, Germany) as explained previously [16]. Cell proliferation assays Cell proliferation was determined by 3-(4,5-Dimethyl-thiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and DNA incorporation with [3H]-thymidine to evaluate the.