Open AccessPriming mesenchymal stem cells boosts stem cell therapy to treat myocardial infarction
Author(s) -
Carvalho Juliana L.,
Braga Vinicius B. A.,
Melo Marcos B.,
Campos Ana Carolina D. A.,
Oliveira Maira S.,
Gomes Dawidson A.,
Ferreira Anderson J.,
Santos Robson A. S.,
Goes Alfredo M.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of cellular and molecular medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.44
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1582-4934
pISSN - 1582-1838
DOI - 10.1111/jcmm.12036
Subject(s) - mesenchymal stem cell , stem cell , medicine , stem cell therapy , cell therapy , priming (agriculture) , myocardial infarction , in vivo , regenerative medicine , regeneration (biology) , cardiology , pathology , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , botany , germination
Cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death globally and are projected to remain the single leading cause of death. Treatment options abounds, although efficacy is limited. Recent studies attribute discrete and ephemeral benefits to adult stem cell therapies, indicating the urge to improve stem cell based–therapy. In this study, we show that priming mesenchymal stem cells ( MSC ) towards cardiomyogenic lineage enhances their beneficial effects in vivo as treatment option for acute phase myocardial infarction. MSC were primed using cardiomyogenic media for 4 days, after which peak expression of key cardiomyogenic genes are reached and protein expression of Cx‐43 and sarcomeric α‐actinin are observed. MSC and primed MSC ( pMSC ) were characterized in vitro and used to treat infarcted rats immediately after left anterior descending ( LAD ) occlusion. Echocardiography analysis indicated that MSC ‐treated myocardium presented discrete improvement in function, but it also showed that pMSC treatment lead to superior beneficial results, compared with undifferentiated MSC . Seven days after cell injection, MSC and pMSC could still be detected in the myocardium. Connexin‐43 expression was quantified through immunoblotting, and was superior in pMSC , indicating that this could be a possible explanation for the superior performance of pMSC therapy.