title: A novel application of myocardial contrast echocardiography to evaluate angiogenesis by autologous bone marrow cell transplantation in chronic ischemic pig model.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We investigated the feasibility of myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) to evaluate regional perfusion after bone marrow cell transplantation.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The myocardial microvessels improved by cell transplantation are too small to visualize with conventional angiography.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fourteen mini-pigs from the Nippon Institute for Biological Science were used. The proximal left anterior descending coronary artery was ligated. One month later, nine pigs survived. Six pigs received autologous cell transplantation into the left ventricular anterior wall: bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMNCs) (n = 3) and bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) (n = 3). The other three pigs received saline (control group, n = 3). The pigs were sacrificed one month later. Myocardial contrast intensity (MCI) with a contrast agent was measured using the SONOS 5500 system (Philips). Capillary density (CD) and MCI were measured at four areas: anteroseptum (nontransplanted infarct area), anterior wall (transplanted infarct area), septum (border zone), and lateral wall (normal). We compared the anteroseptum with the anterior wall by MCI and CD.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the BMMNC and BMSC subsets, the CD of the anterior wall was higher than that of the anteroseptum (p < 0.001). There was a linear relation between MCI and CD (acoustic unit [AU2] = 0.234 CD + 0.010, r = 0.92, p < 0.001). At one month after cell transplantation, MCI of the anterior wall increased in the BMMNC and BMSC subsets (p < 0.05), although it did not change in the control group. The ratio of wall thickness (systole/diastole) in the transplanted infarct area was larger than that in the nontransplanted infarct area (p < 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Myocardial contrast echocardiography is useful to evaluate regional perfusion, which was enhanced by bone marrow cell transplantation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Organ Transplantation, National Cardiovascular Center, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fujii
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tomita
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakatani
authors.forename: Shinya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fukuhara
authors.forename: Akihisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hanatani
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ohtsu
authors.forename: Michiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ishida
authors.forename: Chikao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yutani
authors.forename: Kunio
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Miyatake
authors.forename: Soichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kitamura
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D002200:Capillary Resistance / Q000502:physiology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004452:Echocardiography; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006346:Heart Septum / Q000166:cytology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D009200:Myocardial Contraction / Q000502:physiology; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D009206:Myocardium / Q000166:cytology* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000637:transplantation; D013552:Swine; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous