Improvement in Cardiac Function following Transplantation of Human Umbilical Cord Matrix-Derived Mesenchymal Cells

Abstract

Objectives: Human umbilical cord mesenchymal cells (hUCM) can be easily obtained and processed in a laboratory. These cells may be considered as a suitable source in the repair of heart failure diseases. We, therefore, examined whether these cells may contribute to heart regeneration following an acute experimental myocardial infarction (MI). Methods: MI-induced animals received 5 × 10⁶ hUCM cells, 5 × 10⁶ 5-azacytidine-treated cells (dhUCM), or PBS alone, subepicardially. A group of animals with MI and no other former intervention served as controls. dhUCM cells were assessed for F-actin, myogenin and troponin-I expression. Results: dhUCM cells appeared as binucleated cells with extensive cytoplasmic processes. These differentiated cells were F-actin and myogenin positive. Thirty days after LAD ligation, left ventricular ejection fraction and the percentage of fractional shortening improved significantly in cell-receiving animals. In addition, the amount of scar tissue was significantly reduced in hUCM and dhUCM groups compared to MI group (p < 0.05). These parameters were comparable between hUCM and dhUCM groups. Histopathological evaluations revealed that some engrafted cells adjacent to and remote from the MI area expressed troponin-I, F-actin and connexin43. Conclusion: These findings demonstrated the potential therapeutic use of either differentiated or undifferentiated hUCM cells in treatment of heart failure conditions.

Restoration of Heart Function Using Transplantation of Human Umbilical Cord Matrix-Derived Cardiomyocytes and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor

“…In this study, EF and FS, in MI groups decreased significantly compared to the intact group, five days post MI, which suggests that the treatment of the injured heart's function (dhUCM, VEGF and dhUCM+VEGF) didn't have any advantage at this point. Four weeks post MI, EF significantly increased in three treated animal groups, compared with the non-treated animal groups, in accordance with Latifpour's results [25]. Although increased EF was significantly higher in dhUCM+VEGF group compared with dhUCM only and VEGF only groups, the difference between the last two groups was trivial and negligible.…”

“…Many scientists have administered various stem cells directly to infarcted heart before a differentiation of those cells into cardiogenic in vitro [11,28,31]. Latipour et al have demonstrated that hUCM and dhUCMtransplantation in to infarcted myocardium improved cardiac function thirty days after MI [25]. Although cardiac microenvironment potentially introduced stem cells to cardiomyocyte differentiation, some surveys have revealed that less than 5% of cardiomyocytes are derived from stem cells in the recipient heart tissue [33][34][35].…”

“…Therapeutic potentials of hUCM have been proved for the treatment of some diseases, but their use for myocardial infarction is not well understood yet and therefore its application requires more assessment [21][22][23][24]. Latifpour et al have shown that transplantation of hUCM cells in to infarcted myocardium improved left ventricular function 30 days post MI, however, angiogenesis was never observed [25]. On the other hand, precise assessment of hUCM's effects in cardiac regeneration needs more time than 30 days.…”

The protective effects of human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells on damaged ovarian function: A comparative study

“…As shown in Figure 2, mice in the intravenous group (IV-u2w, IV-u1m) were injected intravenously with 1 × 10 6 hUCMSCs in 100 μL of PBS as described in previous studies (31)(32)(33). Mice in the IV-p2w and IV-p1m groups were injected with 100 μL of PBS alone.…”

Adaptive protection against damage of preconditioning human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells with hydrogen peroxide

“…Based on their various advantages, the use of hUC-MSCs has yielded good results in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases (Wu et al, 2007;Latifpour et al, 2011). Although the treatment of MSCs has progressed in recent years, their effects of ischemia, hypoxia, invasion of inflammatory cells, and other factors in damaged zones can lead to oxidative stress.…”