Macrophages have been suggested to be beneficial for myocardial wound healing. We investigated the role of macrophages in myocardial wound healing by inhibition of macrophage infiltration after myocardial injury. We used a murine cryoinjury model to induce left ventricular damage. Infiltrating macrophages were depleted during the 1st week after cryoinjury by serial intravenous injections of clodronate-containing liposomes. After injury, the presence of macrophages, which secreted high levels of transforming growth factor-␤ and vascular endothelial growth factor-A, led to rapid removal of cell debris and replacement by granulation tissue containing inflammatory cells and blood vessels, followed by myofibroblast infiltration and collagen deposition. In macrophagedepleted hearts, nonresorbed cell debris was still observed 4 weeks after injury. Secretion of transforming growth factor-␤ and vascular endothelial growth factor-A as well as neovascularization, myofibroblast infiltration, and collagen deposition decreased. Moreover, macrophage depletion resulted in a high mortality rate accompanied by increased left ventricular dilatation and wall thinning. In conclusion, infiltrating macrophage depletion markedly impairs wound healing and increases remodeling and mortality after myocardial injury, identifying the macrophage as a key player in myocardial wound healing. Based on these findings, we propose that increasing macrophage numbers early after myocardial infarction could be a clinically relevant option to promote myocardial wound healing and subsequently to reduce remodeling and heart failure. The events that follow tissue damage feature the presence and action of macrophages. Macrophages have been shown to play a central role in wound healing, demonstrating several activities such as phagocytosis of cell debris, induction of apoptosis, recruitment of inflammatory cells and myofibroblasts, regulation of neovascularization, and induction of scar formation.1,2 The importance of macrophages in wound healing has been substantiated by in vivo studies that show that the application of macrophage-activating factors accelerate the wound healing response. 3,4 Other studies demonstrated that injection of macrophages into healing cutaneous wounds augments the repair process. 5Although this multifunctional role of macrophages has been well studied, the specific role of macrophages in myocardial wound healing is poorly understood. After myocardial infarction, macrophages are present during the period of replacement of necrotic cell debris by scar tissue and the formation of blood vessels, 6,7 which suggests that macrophages play a role in different phases of myocardial wound healing.Recent studies on the effect of granulocyte-colonystimulating factor or macrophage-colony-stimulating factor treatment and on reperfusion of ischemic myocardium showed a strong correlation between an increased inflammatory cell infiltration, especially macrophages, into the infarcted area and more effective tissue repair. In addition, a reduction i...

The authors note that, due to a printer's error, references 41-50 appeared incorrectly. The corrected references follow. The authors note: "Our paper unfortunately missed reference to an earlier suggestion of the T6 structure (43). This work entitled 'A hypothetical dense 3,4-connected carbon net and related B 2 C and CN 2 nets built from 1,4-cyclohexadienoid units' by M. J. Bucknum and R. Hoffmann was published in J Am Chem Soc 116: 11456-11464 (1994), where the electronic structure of a hypothetical 3,4-connected tetragonal allotrope of carbon is discussed. The results in this article are consistent with what we find. The same group had also suggested a metallic carbon structure (44) that was published in J Am Chem Soc 105: 4831-4832 (1983), which we also missed to cite. We thank Prof. Hoffmann for bringing these papers to our attention."The complete references appear below. www.pnas.org/cgi

Myofibroblasts play a major role in scar formation during wound healing after myocardial infarction (MI). Their origin has been thought to be interstitial cardiac fibroblasts. However, the bone marrow (BM) can be a source of myofibroblasts in a number of organs after injury. We have studied the temporal, quantitative and functional role of BM-derived (BMD) myofibroblasts in myocardial scar formation. MI was induced by permanent coronary artery ligation in mice reconstituted with EGFP or pro-Col1A2 transgenic BM. In the latter, luciferase and beta-galactosidase transgene expression mirrors that of the endogenous pro-collagen 1A2 gene, which allows for functional assessment of the recruited cells. After MI, alpha-SMA-positive myofibroblasts and collagen I gradually increased in the infarct area until day 14 and remained constant afterwards. Numerous EGFP-positive BMD cells were present during the first week post-MI, and gradually decreased afterwards until day 28. Peak numbers of BMD myofibroblasts, co-expressing EGFP and alpha-SMA, were found on day 7 post-MI. An average of 21% of the BMD cells in the infarct area were myofibroblasts. These cells constituted up to 24% of all myofibroblasts present. By in vivo IVIS imaging, BMD myofibroblasts were found to be active for collagen I production and their presence was confined to the infarct area. These results show that BMD myofibroblasts participate actively in scar formation after MI.