title: Therapeutic angiogenesis promotes efficacy of human umbilical cord matrix stem cell transplantation in cardiac repair.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although previous studies have confirmed the beneficial effects of human umbilical cord matrix stem cell (hUCM) transplantation post myocardial infarction (MI), but this stem cell resource has no potential to induce angiogenesis. In order to achieve the process of angiogenesis and cardiomyocyte regeneration, two required factors for cardiac repair agents were examined namely; hUCM and VEGF on an infarcted heart. The main objective of this research is to investigate the combinatory effect of dhUCM and VEGF transplantation on an infarcted heart.
  
  
  METHODS
  45 min of ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery, the MI-induced animals received 50 μl PBS, 5 μg VEGF, 5×10(6) hUCM cells alone, combined with 5 μg VEGF and 5×10(6) differentiated hUCM cells alone or combined with 5 μg VEGF through intramyocardial injection. MI group, without hUCM and VEGF served as the control group. Left ventricular function and angiogenesis were also evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After eight weeks post MI, there were significant rise in left ventricular ejection farction in dhUCM+VEGF group compared to the other treated and non-treated groups (P<0.05). Fibrosis tissue was markedly lower in the dhUCM+VEGF and hUCM+VEGF groups compared to the other treated and non-treated groups (P<0.05). Despite these benefits, vascular density in dhUCM+VEGF group was not markedly different compared to VEGF and hUCM+VEGF groups. The transplanted hUCM and dhUCM cells survived and migrated to the infarcted area.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings demonstrated that the dhUCM cells transplantation combined with VEGF were more efficient on an infarcted heart.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Medical School, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Kaveh
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Moradi
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Medical School, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abbasi
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Medical School, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Farid
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Aboulhasani
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Tehran Medical Branch, Islamic Azad University, Iran.
authors.forename: Niloufar
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Abbasi
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Medical School, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Kehinde Adebayo
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Babatunde
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.
authors.forename: Fereydoon
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sargolzaeiaval
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Medical School, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran ; Experimental Medicine Research Center, Tums, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ahmad-Reza
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Dehpour
keywords: Angiogenesis; Cardiac repair; Human umbilical; Myocardial; Vascular endothelial-; growth factor