Allogenic stem cells transplantation in rabbit myocardial infarction

• Published in: Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore Vol. 32; no. 5 Suppl; pp. S60 - S66
• Main Authors: Jiang, S, Haider, K H, Lei, Y, Niagara, Rufaihah, Sim, E K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore 01.09.2003
• Subjects: Animals; Female; Mice; Myocardial Infarction - therapy; Myocardial Revascularization - methods; Neovascularization, Physiologic; Stem Cell Transplantation
• ISSN: 0304-4602; 0304-4602
• DOI: 10.47102/annals-acadmedsg.V32N5SpS60

It is generally accepted that cardiac myocytes lack the ability to regenerate after injury, which leads to permanent deficit in the number of functioning cardiomyocytes that contribute to the development and progression of heart failure. Cell therapy has emerged as a promising new strategy to supplement the deficient intrinsic repair mechanism of heart. Various types of cells, including fetal and adult cardiomyocytes and human skeletal myoblasts, have been used for cardiac transplantation. In vitro and de milieu dependent differentiation approaches are being pursued to generate cardiomyocytes from stem cells derived from different sources and have demonstrated great potential in treating heart failure. Stem cells are immature tissue precursor cells, capable of self-renewal and provision of replacement cells for many tissues. The present study involves transplantation of bone marrow-derived allogenic adult stem cells (BMCs) for cardiac repair. The results revealed that BMCs were able to survive in the infarcted myocardium in a rabbit model of myocardial infarction. The BMCs stimulated neovascularisation. An interesting feature of our findings is that some donor cells had transformed into endothelial cells and were seen as part of the blood vessel lumen.