Lack of cardiac nerve sprouting after intramyocardial transplantation of bone marrow-derived stem cells in a swine model of chronic ischemic myocardium.
Previous experimental studies suggested that mesenchymal stem cell transplantation causes cardiac nerve sprouting; however, whether bone marrow (BM)-derived mononuclear cells (MNC) and endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) can also lead to cardiac nerve sprouting and alter gap junction expression remains unclear. We investigated the effect of electroanatomical mapping-guided direct intramyocardial transplantation of BM-MNC (n = 8) and CD31+EPC (n = 8) compared with saline control (n = 8) on cardiac nerve sprouting and gap junction expression in a swine model of chronic ischemic myocardium. At 12 weeks after transplantation, the distribution and density of cardiac nerve sprouting were determined by staining of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and growth associated protein 43(GAP-43) and expression of connexin 43 in the targeted ischemic and remote normal myocardium. After 12 weeks, no animal developed sudden death after the transplantation. There were no significant differences in the number of cells with positive staining of TH and GAP-43 in the ischemic and normal myocardium between three groups. Furthermore, expression of connexin 43 was also similar in the ischemic and normal myocardia in each group of animals (P > 0.05). The results of this study demonstrated that intramyocardial BM-derived MNC or EPC transplantation in a large animal model of chronic myocardial ischemia was not associated with increased cardiac nerve sprouting over the ischemic myocardium.
Cardiology Division, Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, HKSAR, China.
Yuan
Y
Liu
Wing-Hon
WH
Lai
Song-Yan
SY
Liao
Chung-Wah
CW
Siu
Yan-Zong
YZ
Yang
Hung-Fat
HF
Tse
D000818:Animals; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D002908:Chronic Disease; D018031:Connexin 43 / Q000378:metabolism; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000637:transplantation*; D019922:GAP-43 Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D006321:Heart / Q000294:innervation* / Q000503:physiopathology; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D055495:Neurogenesis; D019408:Platelet Endothelial Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 / Q000378:metabolism; D020127:Recovery of Function; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation; D013318:Stroke Volume; D013552:Swine; D013556:Swine, Miniature; D013997:Time Factors; D014446:Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase / Q000378:metabolism; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left
D018031:Connexin 43; D019922:GAP-43 Protein; D019408:Platelet Endothelial Cell Adhesion Molecule-1; D014446:Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase