Bone marrow CD34(+) cell subset under induction of moderate stiffness of extracellular matrix after myocardial infarction facilitated endothelial lineage commitment in vitro

BACKGROUND: The stiffness of the myocardial extracellular matrix (ECM) and the transplanted cell type are vitally important in promoting angiogenesis. However, the combined effect of the two factors remains uncertain. The purpose of this study is to investigate in vitro the combined effect of myocardial ECM stiffness postinfarction with a bone marrow-derived cell subset expressing or not expressing CD34 on endothelial lineage commitment. METHODS: Myocardial stiffness of the infarct zone was determined in mice at 1 h, 24 h, 7 days, 14 days, and 28 days after coronary artery ligation. Polyacrylamide (PA) gel substrates of different stiffnesses were prepared to mechanically mimic the myocardial ECM after infarction. Mouse bone marrow-derived CD34(+) and CD34(–) cells were seeded on the flexible PA gels. The double-positive expression for DiI-acetylated low-density lipoprotein (acLDL) uptake and fluorescein isothiocyanate-Ulex europaeus agglutinin-1 (FITC-UEA-1) binding, the endothelial lineage antigens CD31, von Willebrand factor (vWF), Flk-1, and VE-cadherin, as well as cytoskeleton were measured by immunofluorescent staining on day 7. Cell apoptosis was evaluated by both immunofluorescent staining and flow cytometry at 24 h after culture. RESULTS: We found that the numbers of the CD34(+) cell subset adherent to the flexible substrates (4–72 kPa) was much larger than that of the CD34(–) subset. More double-positive cells for DiI-acLDL uptake/FITC-UEA-1 binding were seen on the 42-kPa (moderately stiff) substrate, corresponding to the stiffness of myocardial ECM at 7–14 days postinfarction, compared with those on substrates of other stiffnesses. Similarly, the moderately stiff substrate showed benefits in promoting the positive expressions of the endothelial lineage markers CD31, vWF, Flk-1, and VE-cadherin. In addition, the cytoskeleton F-actin network within CD34(+) cells was organized more significantly at the leading edge of the adherent cells on the moderately stiff (42 kPa) or stiff (72 kPa) substrates as compared with those on the soft (4 kPa and 15 kPa) substrates. Moreover, the moderately stiff or stiff substrates showed a lower percentage of cell apoptosis than the soft substrates. CONCLUSIONS: Infarcted myocardium-like ECM of moderate stiffness (42 kPa) more beneficially regulated the endothelial lineage commitment of a bone marrow-derived CD34(+) subset. Thus, the combination of a CD34(+) subset with a “suitable” ECM stiffness might be an optimized strategy for cell-based cardiac repair. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13287-017-0732-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.