Endoventricular porcine autologous myoblast transplantation can be successfully achieved with minor mechanical cell damage.
OBJECTIVE
Transplantation of skeletal myogenic precursor cells (mpc) into the myocardium using a non-surgical procedure.


METHODS
Closed-chest mpc transplantation was assessed in pigs using the NOGA-Biosense device allowing both electromechanical mapping of the left ventricle (LV), and guided mpc injections through endocardium.


RESULTS
We successively established that: (1) adequate preimplantation handling of mpc can be achieved when mpc are kept in 0.1% serum albumin-containing medium until implantation; (2) mpc are neither retained nor destroyed in the catheter or the needle and their passage does not affect their survival, growth and differentiation; (3) large numbers of autologous mpc can be actually transplanted in the LV myocardium by transendocardial route, as assessed by post-mortem examination of pigs injected with iron-loaded mpc; (4) cell injection into the myocardium does not induce conspicuous cell mortality since more than 80% of mpc recovered from LV tissue are alive 15 min after injection; (5) mpc injections can be guided into circumscribed LV targets such as infarcted areas, as assessed by comparison of map injection sites with location of iron-loaded mpc at post-mortem examination of LV myocardium.


CONCLUSIONS
This new approach may pave the way for a large spectrum of cell therapies targeting myocardial diseases.
Chazaud
Bénédicte
B
INSERM E0011, Faculté de Médecine, Créteil, France.
Hittinger
Luc
L
Sonnet
Corinne
C
Champagne
Stéphane
S
Le Corvoisier
Philippe
P
Benhaiem-Sigaux
Nicole
N
Unterseeh
Thierry
T
Su
Jinbo
J
Merlet
Pascal
P
Rahmouni
Alain
A
Garot
Jérôme
J
Gherardi
Romain
R
Teiger
Emmanuel
E
D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods; D002470:Cell Survival; D004594:Electrophysiology; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006352:Heart Ventricles; D007267:Injections; D023421:Models, Animal; D032448:Myoblasts, Skeletal / Q000473:pathology / Q000637:transplantation*; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D013552:Swine; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous