Nkx2.5 Based Ventricular Programming of Murine ESC-Derived Cardiomyocytes.

Background/aims: The availability of truly maturated cardiomyocytic subtypes is a major prerequisite for cardiovascular cell replacement therapies. Pluripotent stem cells provide a suitable source for the development of new strategies to overcome enormous hurdles such as yield, purity and safety of in vitro generated cells.

Methods: To address these issues, we have refined existing forward programming protocols by combining forced exogenous overexpression of the early cardiovascular transcription factor Nkx2.