Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) represent a population of adult stem cells residing in many tissues, mainly bone marrow, adipose tissue, and umbilical cord. Due to the safety and availability of standard procedures and protocols for isolation, culturing, and characterization of these cells, MSCs have emerged as one of the most promising sources for cell-based cardiac regenerative therapy. Once transplanted into a damaged heart, MSCs release paracrine factors that nurture the injured area, prevent further adverse cardiac remodeling, and mediate tissue repair along with vasculature. Numerous preclinical studies applying MSCs have provided significant benefits following myocardial infarction. Despite promising results from preclinical studies using animal models, MSCs are not up to the mark for human clinical trials. As a result, various approaches have been considered to promote the therapeutic potency of MSCs, such as genetic engineering, physical treatments, growth factor, and pharmacological agents. Each strategy has targeted one or multi-potentials of MSCs. In this review, we will describe diverse approaches that have been developed to promote the therapeutic potential of MSCs for cardiac regenerative therapy. Particularly, we will discuss major characteristics of individual strategy to enhance therapeutic efficacy of MSCs including scientific principles, advantages, limitations, and improving factors. This article also will briefly introduce recent novel approaches that MSCs enhanced therapeutic potentials of other cells for cardiac repair.
Human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UCB-MSCs) are a promising stem cell source with the potential to modulate the immune system as well as the capacity to differentiate into osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and adipocytes. In previous publications, UCB-MSCs have been successfully differentiated into cardiomyocytes. This study aimed to improve the efficacy of differentiation of UCB-MSCs into cardiomyocytes by combining 5-azacytidine (Aza) with mouse fetal heart extract (HE) in the induction medium. UCB-MSCs were isolated from umbilical cord blood according to a published protocol. Murine fetal hearts were used to produce fetal HE using a rapid freeze-thaw procedure. MSCs at the 3rd to 5th passage were differentiated into cardiomyocytes in two kinds of induction medium: complete culture medium plus Aza (Aza group) and complete culture medium plus Aza and fetal HE (Aza + HE group). The results showed that the cells in both kinds of induction medium exhibited the phenotype of cardiomyocytes. At the transcriptional level, the cells expressed a number of cardiac muscle-specific genes such as Nkx2.5, Gata 4, Mef2c, HCN2, hBNP, α-Ca, cTnT, Desmin, and β-MHC on day 27 in the Aza group and on day 18 in the Aza + HE group. At the translational level, sarcomic α-actin was expressed on day 27 in the Aza group and day 18 in the Aza + HE group. Although they expressed specific genes and proteins of cardiac muscle cells, the induced cells in both groups did not contract and beat spontaneously. These properties are similar to properties of heart muscle precursor cells in vivo. These results demonstrated that the fetal HE facilitates the differentiation process of human UCB-MSCs into heart muscle precursor cells.
The objective of this article is to evaluate the impact of Transformational Leadership on Organizational Innovation, Supply chain Integration and Organizational Performance. Research was carried out on 562 Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises. We use Smart PLS 3.6 software for data analysis. The results show that Transformational Leadership had a positive impact on Organizational Innovation, Supply chain Integration and Organizational Performance. In addition, the Supply chain Integration plays a role as a complete mediate in the relationship between Organizational Innovation and Organizational Performance. Size has a statistically significant moderate role on the relationship between Organizational Innovation and Organizational Performance. Finally, the leader qualification has a statistically significant moderate role in the relationship between Transformational Leadership and Organizational Performance. From the above results, we recommend the leaders of Vietnamese textile and garment enterprises to improve leadership capacity, apply a transformational leadership style to improve organizational performance.
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