Safety and feasibility of percutaneous autologous skeletal myoblast transplantation in the coil-infarcted swine myocardium.
BACKGROUND
Autologous skeletal myoblast transplantation (ASMT) for myocardial regeneration is a promising new treatment for patients with congestive heart failure secondary to myocardial infarction (MI). However, non-surgical delivery could broaden the utility of this approach. The present study was designed to evaluate the safety and feasibility of transplanting autologous skeletal myoblast (ASM) via endovascular delivery into the infarcted swine myocardium.


METHODS
Seven female Yorkshire swine successfully underwent induced left ventricular MI. ASM biopsies were obtained from the hind limb of each animal and myoblasts were expanded in vitro. In a pilot experiment, ASM were labeled with iridium and short-term retention and biodistribution was determined 2 h after ASM delivery via the MyoStar needle-injection catheter inserted through the femoral artery. At 30 days post-infarction, the remaining animals were divided into three groups containing 2 animals each for percutaneous catheter delivery into the infarcted zone: group 1 control animals were injected with media only, group 2 and 3 animals were injected with approximately 300 x 10(6) and 600 x 10(6) ASM, respectively. Sixty days post-transplantation, the swine hearts were harvested.


RESULTS
During the 60-day period between transplantation and harvest, no adverse events were recorded, and continuous rhythm monitoring revealed no arrhythmias. In the small sampling size, myocardial function assessments revealed a trend toward improvement in the treatment groups with respect to ejection fraction, viability, and cardiac index. However, histology of treated swine hearts identified no skeletal muscle cells.


CONCLUSIONS
Percutaneous ASMT into an infarcted swine myocardium is feasible and safe, and may contribute to overall improved heart function.
Dib
Nabil
N
Arizona Heart Institute, Phoenix, USA. ndib@azheart.com
Campbell
Ann
A
Jacoby
Douglas B
DB
Zawadzka
Agatha
A
Ratliff
Judson
J
Miedzybrocki
Brigitte M
BM
Gahremanpour
Amir
A
Diethrich
Edward B
EB
Opie
Shaun R
SR
D000818:Animals; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000502:physiology; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D007269:Injections, Intra-Arterial / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods; D032448:Myoblasts, Skeletal / Q000637:transplantation*; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D013552:Swine; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*