Regenerating functional myocardium: Improved performance after skeletal myoblast transplantation

Abstract

The adult heart lacks reserve cardiocytes and cannot regenerate. Therefore, a large acute myocardial infarction often develops into congestive heart failure. To attempt to prevent this progression, we transplanted skeletal myoblasts into cryoinfarcted myocardium of the same rabbits (autologous transfer), monitored cardiac function in vivo for two to six weeks and examined serial sections of the hearts by light and electron microscopy. Islands of different sizes comprising elongated, striated cells that retained characteristics of both skeletal and cardiac cells were found in the cryoinfarct. In rabbits in which myoblasts were incorporated, myocardial performance was improved. The ability to regenerate functioning muscle after autologous myoblast transplantation could have a important effect on patients after acute myocardial infarction.

Canadian Cardiovascular Society consensus conference recommendations on heart failure 2006: Diagnosis and management

“…Novel surgical therapies include left ventricular remodelling, mechanical circulatory assistance and, more recently, isolated cell transplantation or gene therapy (111)(112)(113)(114)(115)(116). The advent of cell transplantation provides great promise for the future because it may be a useful adjunct to several of the previously mentioned therapies.…”

Regeneration of dystrophin-expressing myocytes in the mdx heart by skeletal muscle stem cells

“…[13][14][15][16][17] Notably, numerous research groups have found that skeletal muscle-derived cells can successfully engraft in the heart and improve cardiac performance in animal models. [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] Currently, autologous skeletal myoblasts are being used in clinical trials for cardiac repair. [31][32][33][34][35] Our research group has isolated populations of murine skeletal muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) by using a modified preplate technique.…”

Medicina regenerativa con células madre adultas

“…La mayoría de los estudios también han demostrado que el trasplante de mioblastos contribuye significativamente a mejorar la función cardíaca, mejorando principalmente la función sistólica (fracción de eyección), pero en algunos casos también la función diastólica. En general, los estudios publicados sugieren que la mejoría de la función es proporcional al número de mioblastos injertados 24,25 y esta mejoría se mantiene en el tiempo. Aunque algunos de los estudios iniciales sugerían que los mioblastos esqueléticos eran capaces de adquirir propiedades similares a las del músculo cardíaco e incluso transdiferenciarse y establecer conexiones electromecánicas 26 , en la actualidad las evidencias indican que no se produce una transdiferenciación de los mioblastos y que además las fibras musculares esqueléticas no son capaces de acoplarse mecánicamente con el resto de los cardiomiocitos ni establecer uniones densas 27 .…”