Abstract
NKX2-5 is expressed in the heart throughout life. We targeted eGFP sequences to the NKX2-5 locus of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs); NKX2-5(eGFP/w) hESCs facilitate quantification of cardiac differentiation, purification of hESC-derived committed cardiac progenitor cells (hESC-CPCs) and cardiomyocytes (hESC-CMs) and the standardization of differentiation protocols. We used NKX2-5 eGFP(+) cells to identify VCAM1 and SIRPA as cell-surface markers expressed in cardiac lineages.