title: Adult stem cells, scaffolds for in vivo and in vitro myocardial tissue engineering.
abstract: The main goal in the last few years in cardiac research has been to isolate cardiac potential stem cells from adult myocardium and to demonstrate their differentiation potential. We have previously demonstrated that c-Kit positive cardiac stem cells are able to organize themselves into a tissue-like cell mass. In this 3D mass, they can produce a high concentration of natural extracellular matrix, can create vessels, a capsule and, with the help of an Open-pore Polylactic Acid scaffold, many cells can organize an elementary myocardium. Drawing from this background, we decided to design and use poly-lactic scaffolds and the model of the athymic Nude-Foxn1(nu) mouse to evaluate the extent of the myogenic vs endothelial differentiation in vivo, and to evaluate the presence or the absence of a foreign body reaction.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento BIONEC, Università degli studi di Palermo, Italia. vdfelice@inwind.it
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Di Felice
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Luca
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Serradifalco
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Di Marco
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Verin
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Motta
authors.forename: Annalisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guercio
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zummo
mesh_terms: D053687:Adult Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology* / Q000637:transplantation*; D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005260:Female; D048091:Guided Tissue Regeneration / Q000379:methods; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009206:Myocardium / Q000737:chemistry / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D038081:Organogenesis / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000592:standards; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous / Q000379:methods*