ABSTRACT
The discovery of human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells (ESCs/iPSCs) offers potential for the application and usage of differentiated cells in novel and vast research fi elds such as regenerative medicine, developmental biology, cell physiology, disease model, and drug discovery (Thomson et al. 1998; Takahashi et al. 2007). For these applications, it is important to induce differentiation of specifi c cell types and to purify them. Cardiomyocytes derived from ESCs are easily detected because they start to beat soon after differentiation. However, no effi cient and robust induction method was available until recently. In these last few years, directed differentiation methods for cardiac lineages have been
1Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University, 53, Shogoin Kawahara-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan, 606-8507. 2Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, 53, Shogoin Kawahara-cho, Sakyoku, Kyoto, Japan, 606-8507. 3Current address: Division of Cardiology, The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, 720 Rutland Ave, Ross 954, Baltimore MD 21205. aEmail: huosaki1@jhmi.edu bEmail: juny@frontier.kyoto-u.ac.jp *Corresponding author
rapidly developed and improved. In this chapter, we describe the directed and systematic differentiation of cardiovascular cell lineage from mouse and human ESCs/iPSCs and briefl y summarize the cell surface makers for the purifi cation of cardiomyocytes.
