Intramyocardial Injection of Pig Pluripotent Stem Cells Improves Left Ventricular Function and Perfusion: A Study in a Porcine Model of Acute Myocardial Infarction

PLoS One. 2013 Jun 21;8(6):e66688. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0066688. Print 2013.

Abstract

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have the potential to differentiate to various types of cardiovascular cells to repair an injured heart. The potential therapeutic benefits of iPS cell based treatment have been established in small-animal models of myocardial infarction (MI). We hypothesize that porcine iPS (piPS) cell transplantation may be an effective treatment for MI. After a 90-minute occlusion of the left anterior descending artery in a porcine model, undifferentiated piPS cells or PBS were injected into the ischemic myocardium. Cardiac function, myocardial perfusion and cell differentiation were investigated. One week after piPS cell delivery, global left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) significantly decreased in both the iPS group and the PBS group compared to the Sham group (p<0.05, respectively). Six weeks after piPS cell delivery, LVEF of the iPS group significantly improved compared to the PBS group (56.68% vs. 50.93%, p = 0.04) but was still lower than the Sham group. Likewise, the piPS cell transplantation improved the regional perfusion compared to the PBS injection (19.67% vs. 13.67%, p = 0.02). The infarct area was significantly smaller in the iPS group than the PBS group (12.04% vs. 15.98% p = 0.01). PiPS cells engrafted into the myocardium can differentiate into vessel cells, which result in increased formation of new vessels in the infarcted heart. Direct intramyocardial injection of piPS cells can decrease infarct size and improve left ventricular function and perfusion for an immunosuppressed porcine AMI model.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Actins / metabolism
  • Acute Disease
  • Animals
  • Cell Differentiation
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Female
  • Heart / diagnostic imaging
  • Immunocompromised Host
  • Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / cytology
  • Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / transplantation*
  • Male
  • Myocardial Infarction / therapy*
  • Myocardium / metabolism
  • Myocardium / pathology
  • Myocardium / ultrastructure
  • Regeneration
  • Swine
  • Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
  • Ventricular Function, Left / physiology*

Substances

  • Actins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 81170160, 30871077, 30800464) (http://www.nsfc.gov.cn/Portal0/default152.htm), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD), the Six Talents Peak Project of Jiangsu Province (Grant no. DG216D5044), the Postgraduate research and innovation project in Jiangsu province, China, and the Program for Development of Innovative Research Team in the First Affiliated Hospital of NJMU (IRT-004). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.