Fig. 3

Knockdown of Oct3/4 of CSCs inhibited CSC-derived myocyte proliferation and cardiac commitments in post-MI myocardium. a Representative staining images of c-kit⁺ CSC-derived cardiomyocytes. c-kit⁺ CSCs were stained with GFP (red); cardiomyocytes were identified with α-actin (green). b Quantitative analysis of GFP/α-actin positive myocytes. c, f,  i Representative staining images of Ki67/α-actin (c), PH3/α-actin (f), and EdU/α-Actin (i). Cardiomyocytes were identified with α-actin (green). Ki67 (red), PH3 (red), and EdU (red) were used to determine myocyte proliferation. d, e, g, h, j, k Quantitative analyses of Ki67, PH3, and EdU staining. The number of positive-stained myocytes was counted in five or six randomly chosen fields per heart. Three to five hearts were analyzed per group. Data shown as mean ± SEM. *p <0.05 vs. MI-PBS, **p <0.01 vs. MI-PBS, #p <0.05 vs. MI + CSCs-Oct3/4(+) control siRNA, ##p <0.01 vs. MI + CSCs-Oct3/4(+) control siRNA. Scale bar: 100 μm. CSC cardiac stem cell, DAPI 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole, EdU 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine, GFP green fluorescent protein, MI myocardial infarction, PBS phosphate-buffered saline, PH3 phosphorylated histone 3, siRNA small interfering RNA