Figure. 7. Effect of HSR on CDCs and endogenous c-kit⁺ CSCs.

(A) Representative dot plot of FACS analysis for Ki67 expression of CHD derived CDCs after treatment with HS or CEL. Quantification (right) showed 3.0 fold increase in cell proliferation of the CEL or HS treated CDCs as compared to CNT (*P<0.05). (B) Effect of HSR on c-kit⁺/CD45⁻ hCSCs. HS or CEL treatment significantly increased cell proliferation of purified c-kit⁺ CSCs as determined by MTS assay. (C). Expression profile of cardiac specific stem cells markers in CHD and ESHF myocardium. Quantitative RT-PCR suggested a 2-fold increase in the c-kit⁺ expression of ESHF myocardium as compared to CHD myocardium. Data analyzed by non-parametric t-test followed by Mann-Whitney analysis. (D) The number of c-kit⁺ CSCs were increased in ESHF myocardial sections as detected by confocal microscopy images with staining of c-kit⁺ (red), cardiac TnI (green), and nuclear DAPI (blue). The results also indicate that the relative mean percentage of c-kit⁺ CSCs did not vary across ages. Results are presented as mean of percentage of total cells per sample. Data are analyzed by 2-Way ANOVA followed by Benferroni’s analysis or one –way ANOVA (non-parametric, Kruskal-Wallis test) followed by Dunns analysis or non-parametric t-test (Mann-Whitney’s). Data are presented as mean ± SEM.