Figure 3

Cardiovascular development signaling network within cardiopoietic cells. (a) Genes identified in Table 1 integrate into a network suggesting non-stochastic tendencies with emergent scale-free properties (top right). Examples of hubs, with number of first neighbor connections in parentheses, are labeled on the clustering coefficient plot (top right, inset). (b) All upregulated genes in cardiopoietic cells analyzed for enriched functions were further mined to identify top supporting signaling cascades. Individual signaling pathways (green circles) were distributed according to significance during stem cell-derived cardiogenesis, indicating differences in pathway prioritization at discrete stages. The color scale at right indicates progression from embryonic stem cells (ES) through the cardiopoietic stage (CP) to stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (CM), shown in counterclockwise fashion. CSF, colony stimulating factor; GAG, glycosaminoglycan; GSL, glycosphingolipid. (c) Cross-referencing the signaling cascades represented in (a) with all cardiopoietic pathways identified in (b) converge on integrin, WNT/β-catenin, VEGF, TGFβ and other (IGF, IL6) signaling cascades anchoring the procardiogenic network. A common node shared by these pathways, AKT, is outlined in (a).