Transgenic Enrichment of Cardiomyocytes From Human Embryonic Stem Cells

To realize the full scientific and clinical potential of human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-cardiomyocytes, strategies to overcome the high degree of heterogeneity of differentiated populations are required. Here we demonstrate the utility of two transgenic approaches in enrichment of cardiomyocytes derived from HUES-7 cells: (i) negative selection of proliferating cells with the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase/ganciclovir (HSVtk/GCV) suicide gene system; and (ii) positive selection of cardiomyocytes expressing a bicistronic reporter [green fluorescent protein (GFP)-internal ribosome entry site (IRES)-puromycin-N-acetyltransferase (PAC)] from the human αmyosin heavy chain promoter. Parental and transgenic HUES-7 cells were similar with regard to morphology, pluripotency marker expression, differentiation, and cardiomyocyte electrophysiology. Whereas immunostaining of dissociated cardiomyocyte preparations expressing HSVtk or PAC contained