title: Transplantation of adipose tissue mesenchymal stem cells in experimental chronic chagasic cardiopathy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is a major cause of heart failure in Latin America. Tissue therapy has been investigated as a possible therapeutic option for patients with cardiovascular disease.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study evaluated the effects of therapy with mesenchymal stem cells in an experimental model of chronic Chagasic cardiomyopathy.
  
  
  METHODS
  C57BL/6 mice were infected with 1000 trypomastigotes from the Colombian strain of T. cruzi and, after six months of infection, were treated with mesenchymal human stem cells from adipose tissue (STAT) or with Dulbecco/Vogt modified Eagle's minimal essential medium - DMEM (control). The treated group received two intraperitoneal injections of STAT (1x10(6) cells/dose), with a month interval between the two doses. Before and after the first and second months of treatment, the chagasic and normal control animals underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing and electrocardiography. All animals were sacrificed under anesthesia after two months of treatment for histopathological analysis of the heart.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No improvement was observed in arrhythmias and cardiovascular function in the group of animals treated with STAT; however, sections of mice hearts in this group revealed a significant reduction in the number of inflammatory cells (p<0.0001) and areas of fibrosis (p<0.01) in comparison with chagasic animals treated with DMEM.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Thus, it is concluded that administration of intraperitoneal STAT can reduce inflammation and fibrosis in the heart of mice chronically infected with T. cruzi; however, there were no effects on the cardiac function two months after transplantation.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Pesquisas Gonçalo Moniz - Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Salvador, BA – Brazil. ticianaferreira@cardiol.br
authors.forename: Ticiana Ferreira
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Larocca
authors.forename: Bruno Solano de Freitas
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Souza
authors.forename: Cristina Aragão
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Carla Martins
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Kaneto
authors.forename: Adriano Costa de
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Alcantara
authors.forename: Carine Machado
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Azevedo
authors.forename: Murilo Fagundes
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.forename: Simone Garcia
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Macambira
authors.forename: Milena Botelho Pereira
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ribeiro-dos-Santos
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000166:cytology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000378:metabolism; D002598:Chagas Cardiomyopathy / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005355:Fibrosis; D007249:Inflammation / Q000378:metabolism; D007274:Injections, Intraperitoneal; D045164:Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal / Q000379:methods; D011897:Random Allocation; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi