title: Novel microRNA prosurvival cocktail for improving engraftment and function of cardiac progenitor cell transplantation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although stem cell therapy has provided a promising treatment for myocardial infarction, the low survival of the transplanted cells in the infarcted myocardium is possibly a primary reason for failure of long-term improvement. Therefore, the development of novel prosurvival strategies to boost stem cell survival will be of significant benefit to this field.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) were isolated from transgenic mice, which constitutively express firefly luciferase and green fluorescent protein. The CPCs were transduced with individual lentivirus carrying the precursor of miR-21, miR-24, and miR-221, a cocktail of these 3 microRNA precursors, or green fluorescent protein as a control. After challenge in serum free medium, CPCs treated with the 3 microRNA cocktail showed significantly higher viability compared with untreated CPCs. After intramuscular and intramyocardial injections, in vivo bioluminescence imaging showed that microRNA cocktail-treated CPCs survived significantly longer after transplantation. After left anterior descending artery ligation, microRNA cocktail-treated CPCs boost the therapeutic efficacy in terms of functional recovery. Histological analysis confirmed increased myocardial wall thickness and CPC engraftment in the myocardium with the microRNA cocktail. Finally, we used bioinformatics analysis and experimental validation assays to show that Bim, a critical apoptotic activator, is an important target gene of the microRNA cocktail, which collectively can bind to the 3'UTR region of Bim and suppress its expression.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We have demonstrated that a microRNA prosurvival cocktail (miR-21, miR-24, and miR-221) can improve the engraftment of transplanted cardiac progenitor cells and therapeutic efficacy for treatment of ischemic heart disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5454, USA.
authors.forename: Shijun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Patricia K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Yongquan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.forename: Zongjin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Fangjun
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.forename: Junwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Divya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nag
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Robbins
authors.forename: Joseph C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D064987:Cell- and Tissue-Based Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005260:Female; D006085:Graft Survival / Q000502:physiology*; D007273:Injections, Intramuscular; D016086:Lentivirus; D051379:Mice; D016513:Mice, SCID; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D023421:Models, Animal; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000628:therapy*; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology; D014161:Transduction, Genetic; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: C531950:MIRN21 microRNA, mouse; C546122:MIRN221 microRNA, mouse; D035683:MicroRNAs; C529080:Mirn24 microRNA, mouse