Enhanced cell transplantation: preventing apoptosis increases cell survival and ventricular function.
Cell transplantation prevents cardiac dysfunction after myocardial infarction. However, because most implanted cells are lost to ischemia and apoptosis, the benefits of cell transplantation on heart function could be improved by increasing cell survival. To examine this possibility, male Lewis rat aortic smooth muscle cells (SMCs; 4 x 10(6)) were pretreated with antiapoptotic Bcl-2 gene transfection or heat shock and then implanted into the infarcted myocardium of anesthetized, syngenic female rats (n = 23 per group). On the first day after transplantation, apoptotic SMCs were quantified by using transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling staining. On days 7 and 28, grafted cell survival was quantified by using real-time PCR, and heart function was assessed with the use of echocardiography and the Langendorff apparatus. SMCs given antiapoptotic pretreatments exhibited improvements in each measure relative to controls. Apoptosis was reduced in Bcl-2-treated cells relative to all other groups (P < 0.05), whereas survival (P < 0.01) was increased. Heat shock also significantly decreased apoptosis and increased survival relative to control groups (P < 0.05 for group effect), although these effects were less pronounced than in the Bcl-2-treated group. Further, scar areas were reduced in both Bcl-2- and heat shock-treated groups relative to controls (P < 0.05), and fractional area change and cardiac function were greater (P < 0.05 for both measures). These results indicate that antiapoptosis pretreatments reduced grafted SMC loss after transplantation and enhanced grafted cell survival and ventricular function, which was directly related (r = 0.72; P = 0.002) to the number of surviving engrafted cells.
Nakamura
Yoshinobu
Y
Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiac Surgery, Toronto General Research Institute, Toronto General Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Yasuda
Tamotsu
T
Weisel
Richard D
RD
Li
Ren-Ke
RK
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology*; D053148:Caspase 3; D020169:Caspases / Q000378:metabolism; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000502:physiology*; D017690:Cell Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D004452:Echocardiography; D019940:Genes, bcl-1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D050884:HSP72 Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D006334:Heart Function Tests; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000473:pathology; D018869:Heat-Shock Response / Q000502:physiology; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008297:Male; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D009206:Myocardium / Q000166:cytology; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014162:Transfection; D016276:Ventricular Function
D050884:HSP72 Heat-Shock Proteins; C505410:Casp3 protein, rat; D053148:Caspase 3; D020169:Caspases