Table 1.

Summary of c-Kit+ cardiac stem cell debate.

	CURRENT CARDIAC c-KIT FINDINGS	SPECIES	REFERENCES
c-Kit YES	Mammalian hearts possess c-Kit+ adult stem cells that contribute to cardiac formation, homeostasis and repair.	mouse	Beltrami et al, Cell, 2003
			Ellison et al, Cell, 2013
			Nadal-Ginard et al, Stem Cell Res, 2014
			Anversa et al, JCI, 2013
			Hatzistergos et al, PNAS 2015
			Tallini et al, 2009
			(1–3,5,22,57)
	Adoptive transfer of autologous cardiac c-Kit+ cells improves cardiac function in heart failure patients.	human, pig	Bolli et al, Lancet, 2011
			Chugh et al, Circulation, 2012
			Quevedo et al, PNAS, 2009
			Schuleri et al, Eur Heart J, 2009
			McCall et al, Nature protocols, 2012
			(50,63,64,8,65)
	Cardiac c-Kit+ progenitor cells engineered to overexpress Pim1 engraft, differentiate and improve cardiac function better than non-engineered cells upon adoptive transfer into infarcted myocardium.	mouse, pig	Fisher et al, Circulation, 2009
			Mohsin et al, Circ Res, 2011
			Mohsin et al, JACC, 2012
			Mohsin et al, Circ Res, 2013
			(52–55)
	c-Kit+ cell fate mapping models show that c-Kit+ cells contribute to cardiogenesis during development and repair.	mouse	Hatzistergos et al, PNAS, 2015
			van Berlo et al, Nature, 2014
			(22,60)
	c-Kit is expressed in neonatal myocytes during terminal differentiation	mouse	Li et al, Circ Res, 2008
			Naqvi et al, Ped cardiol, 2009
			(58,66)
c-Kit No	c-Kit+ cells are not adult cardiac stem cells and do not contribute to cardiac formation, homeostasis or repair.	mouse,	Balsam et al, Nature, 2004
			Sultana et al, Nat Comm, 2015
			Zaruba et al, Circulation, 2010
			(74,61,67)
	Exogenous c-Kit+ cells do not repair injured myocardium through de novo formation of cardiac tissue.	mouse	Murry et al, Nature, 2004
			(68)
	c-Kit+ cells are irrelevant in human cardiosphere cell therapy applications.	human	Cheng et al, JAHA, 2014
			(69)
c-Kit MAYBE	Cardiomyocyte fate mapping models suggest that c-Kit+ cells could contribute to cardiogenesis following injury.	mouse	Hsieh et al, Nat Med, 2007
			(70)
	c-Kit+ cells contribute to neonatal but not adult cardiac repair in mouse.	mouse	Jesty et al, PNAS, 2012
			(71)
	Normal, injured or dedifferentiated cardiomyocytes may express c-Kit.	mouse	Liu et al, Cell Res, 2016
			Tallini et al, PNAS, 2009
			Zhang et al, PloS One, 2010
			Kubin et al, Cell Stem Cell, 2011
			(59,57,72,73)