Host vascular niche contributes to myocardial repair induced by intracoronary transplantation of bone marrow CD34+ progenitor cells in infarcted swine heart.

The effects of bone marrow cell transplantation (BMT) on myocardial infarct might be affected by host intrinsic circumferences. A best vascular niche was shown in the infarcted hearts with collateral vessels at 2 weeks after myocardial infarction (MI). BMT caused the greatest cardiac repairs after MI in the swine with better collateral vessels, which might be relative to richer collateral vessels, greater vessel densities, and higher expressions of basif fibroblast growth factor and stromal cell-derived factor-1 in the hearts before BMT. Our data suggest that existence of intrinsic collateral vessels contributes greatly to the beneficial effects of intracoronary BMT on cardiac repairs after MI. Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is found at the end of this article.