Scientific publications

Transplantation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells exerts a greater long-term effect than Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cells in a chronic myocardial infarction model in rat. Scientific Publication

Nov 16, 2009 | Magazine: Cell Transplantation

Mazo M, Gavira JJ, Abizanda G, Moreno C, Ecay M, Soriano M, Aranda P, Collantes M, Alegría E, Merino J, Peñuelas IN, Verdugo JM, Pelacho B, Prosper F.


Aims
To assess the long-term effect of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) transplantation in a rat model of chronic myocardial infarction (MI) in comparison with the effect of bone marrow mononuclear cells (BM-MNC) transplant.

Materials and Methods
5 weeks after induction of MI, rats were allocated to receive intramyocardial injection of 10 GFP-expressing cells (BM-MNC or MSC) or medium as control. Heart function (echocardiography and (1)F-FDG-microPET) and histological studies were performed 3 months after transplantation and cell fate was analyzed along the experiment (1, 2 weeks and 1, 3 months).

Results
The main findings of this study were that both BM-derived populations, BM-MNC and MSC, induced a long-lasting (3 months) improvement in LVEF (BM-MNC: 26.61 +/- 2.01% to 46.61 +/- 3.7%, P<0.05; MSC: 27.5 +/- 1.28% to 38.8 +/- 3.2%, P<0.05) but remarkably, only MSC improved tissue metabolism quantified by (1)F-FDG uptake (71.15 +/- 1.27 to 76.31 +/- 1.11, P<0.01) which was thereby associated with a smaller infarct size and scar collagen content and also, with a higher revascularization degree.

Conclusions
Altogether, results show that MSC provides a long-term superior benefit than whole BM-MNC transplantation in a rat model of chronic MI.

CITATION Cell Transplant. 2010;19(3):313-28