Transplantation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells Exerts a Greater Long-Term Effect than Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cells in a Chronic Myocardial Infarction Model in Rat

• Main Authors: Manuel Mazo, Juan José Gavira, Gloria Abizanda, Cristina Moreno, Margarita Ecay, Mario Soriano, Pablo Aranda, María Collantes, Eduardo Alegría, Juana Merino, Iván Peñuelas, José Manuel García Verdugo, Beatriz Pelacho Ph.D., Felipe Prósper M.D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2010-03-01
• Series: Cell Transplantation
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3727/096368909X480323

The aim of this study is 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. Five weeks after induction of MI, rats were allocated to receive intramyocardial injection of 10 6 GFP-expressing cells (BM-MNC or MSC) or medium as control. Heart function (echocardiography and 18 F-FDG-microPET) and histological studies were performed 3 months after transplantation and cell fate was analyzed along the experiment (1 and 2 weeks and 1 and 3 months). 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 18 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. Altogether, results show that MSC provides a long-term superior benefit than whole BM-MNC transplantation in a rat model of chronic MI.