We have fabricated a clinically relevant size of hCMP with trilineage cardiac cells derived from human induced-pluripotent stem cells. The hCMP matures in vitro during 7 days of dynamic culture. Transplantation of this type of hCMP results in significantly reduced infarct size and improvements in cardiac function that are associated with reduction in left ventricular wall stress. The hCMP treatment is not associated with significant changes in arrhythmogenicity.
The high rate of mortality and frequent incidence of recurrence associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) reveal the need for new therapeutic approaches. In this report, we evaluated the efficacy of a novel chemo-immunotherapeutic strategy to control HCC and investigated the underlying mechanism that increased the antitumor immune response. We developed a novel orthotopic mouse model of HCC through seeding of tumorigenic hepatocytes from SV40 T antigen (Tag) transgenic MTD2 mice into the livers of syngeneic C57BL/6 mice. These MTD2-derived hepatocytes form Tag expressing HCC tumors specifically within the liver. This approach provides a platform to test therapeutic strategies and antigen specific immune-directed therapy in an immunocompetent murine model. Using this model, we tested the efficacy of a combination of oral sunitinib, a small molecule multi-targeted receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) inhibitor, and adoptive transfer of tumor antigen-specific CD8+ T cells to eliminate HCC. Sunitinib treatment alone promoted a transient reduction in tumor size. Sunitinib treatment combined with adoptive transfer of tumor antigen-specific CD8+ T cells led to elimination of established tumors without recurrence. In vitro studies revealed that HCC growth was inhibited through suppression of STAT3 signaling. In addition, sunitinib treatment of tumor-bearing mice was associated with suppression of STAT3 and a block in T cell tolerance. Conclusion These findings indicate that sunitinib inhibits HCC tumor growth directly through the STAT3 pathway and prevents tumor antigen-specific CD8+ T cell tolerance, thus defining a synergistic chemo-immunotherapeutic approach for HCC.
Background-We have shown that genetic overexpression of cell cycle proteins can increase the proliferation of transplanted cardiomyocytes derived from human induced-pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC-CMs) in animal models of myocardial infarction (MI). Here, we introduce a new, nongenetic approach to promote hiPSC-CM cell cycle activity and proliferation in transplanted human cardiomyocyte patches (hCMPs).Methods-Mice were randomly distributed into 5 experimental groups (n = 10 per group). One group underwent Sham surgery, and the other 4 groups underwent MI induction surgery followed by treatment with hCMPs composed of hiPSC-CMs and nanoparticles that contained CHIR99021 and FGF1 (the NP CF -hCMP group), with hCMPs composed of hiPSC-CMs and empty nanoparticles (the NP E -hCMP group); with patches containing the CHIR99021/FGF-loaded nanoparticles but lacking hiPSC-CMs (the NP CF -Patch group), or patches lacking both the nanoparticles and cells (the E-Patch group). Cell cycle activity was evaluated via Ki67 and Aurora B expression, bromodeoxyuridine incorporation, and phosphorylated histone 3 levels (immunofluorescence); engraftment via human cardiac troponin T or human nuclear antigen expression (immunofluorescence) and bioluminescence imaging; cardiac function via echocardiography; infarct size and wall thickness via histology; angiogenesis via isolectin B4 expression (immunofluorescence); and apoptosis via TUNEL and caspace 3 expression (immunofluorescence).
Stat3 alters the expression of its downstream genes and is associated with tumor invasion and metastasis in several human cancers. Its role in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has not been well characterized. We examined the tumor sections of 100 cases of ESCC by immunohistochemistry and observed significant overexpression of Stat3 in the cytoplasm of 89% of ESCC cells and of phosphorylated Stat3 (p-Stat3) in the nuclei of 71% of ESCC when compare with normal esophageal mucosa (72%, p = 0.02; and 31%, p = 0.001). Overexpression of Stat3 and p-Stat3 positively correlated with that of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP2), a known regulator for cell migration, in 65% of ESCC while only 26% shown in benign esophageal mucosa. To further investigate the association of Stat3 with tumor metastasis in vitro, invasion of EC-1 cells (a human ESCC cell line) were investigated with Boyden chambers. The results showed that transfection of Stat3 not only promoted invasion of EC-1 cells but also significantly induced MMP2 expression in a dose-dependent manner. In contrast, suppressing expression of endogenous Stat3 mRNA and protein by Stat3 siRNA significantly reduced EC-1 cell invasion and MMP2 expression. A high-affinity Stat3-binding element was localized to the positions of 648-641 bp (TTCTCGAA) in the MMP2 promoter with electrophoretic mobility shift assay. Our results suggest that Stat3, p-Stat3, and MMP2 were overexpressed in ESCC and associated with invasion of ESCC; and Stat3 up-regulated expression of MMP2 in ESCC through directly binding to the MMP2 promoter.
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