Cardiac repair with intramyocardial injection of allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells after myocardial infarction.
Although clinical trials of autologous whole bone marrow for cardiac repair demonstrate promising results, many practical and mechanistic issues regarding this therapy remain highly controversial. Here, we report the results of a randomized study of bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells, administered to pigs, which offer several new insights regarding cellular cardiomyoplasty. First, cells were safely injected by using a percutaneous-injection catheter 3 d after myocardial infarction. Second, cellular transplantation resulted in long-term engraftment, profound reduction in scar formation, and near-normalization of cardiac function. Third, transplanted cells were pre-prepared from an allogeneic donor and were not rejected, a major practical advance for widespread application of this therapy. Together, these findings demonstrate that the direct injection of cellular grafts into damaged myocardium is safe and effective in the perii-nfarct period. The direct delivery of cells to necrotic myocardium offers a valuable alternative to intracoronary cell injections, and the use of allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells provides a valuable strategy for cardiac regenerative therapy that avoids the need for preparing autologous cells from the recipient.
Amado
Luciano C
LC
Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Blalock 618, 600 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.
Saliaris
Anastasios P
AP
Schuleri
Karl H
KH
St John
Marcus
M
Xie
Jin-Sheng
JS
Cattaneo
Stephen
S
Durand
Daniel J
DJ
Fitton
Torin
T
Kuang
Jin Qiang
JQ
Stewart
Garrick
G
Lehrke
Stephanie
S
Baumgartner
William W
WW
Martin
Bradley J
BJ
Heldman
Alan W
AW
Hare
Joshua M
JM
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization; D005260:Female; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007267:Injections; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D045164:Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D009200:Myocardial Contraction / Q000502:physiology; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000502:physiology*; D012038:Regeneration / Q000502:physiology*; D034421:Sus scrofa; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous