Chemical dimerization of fibroblast growth factor receptor-1 induces myoblast proliferation, increases intracardiac graft size, and reduces ventricular dilation in infarcted hearts.

The ability to control proliferation of grafted cells in the heart and consequent graft size could dramatically improve the efficacy of cell therapies for cardiac repair. To achieve targeted graft cell proliferation, we created a chimeric receptor (F36Vfgfr-1) composed of a modified FK506-binding protein (F36V) fused with the cytoplasmic domain of the fibroblast growth factor receptor-1 (FGFR-1). We retrovirally transduced mouse C2C12 and MM14 skeletal myoblasts with this construct and treated them with AP20187, a dimeric F36V ligand ("dimerizer"), in vitro and in vivo to induce receptor dimerization. Dimerizer treatment in vitro activated the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway and induced proliferation in myoblasts expressing F36Vfgfr-1 comparable with the effects of basic FGF. Wild-type myoblasts did not respond to dimerizer. Subcutaneous grafts composed of myoblasts expressing F36Vfgfr-1 showed a dose-dependent increase in DNA synthesis with dimerizer treatment. When myoblasts expressing F36Vfgfr-1 were injected into infarcted hearts of nude mice, dimerizer treatment resulted in a dose-dependent increase in graft size, from 20 +/- 3 to 42.9 +/- 4.3% of the left ventricle. Blinded echocardiographic analysis demonstrated that larger graft size was associated with a dose-dependent reduction in ventricular dilation after myocardial infarction, although animals with the largest grafts showed an increased incidence of ventricular tachycardia. Thus, selective proliferation of genetically modified graft cells can be induced with a systemically administered synthetic molecule in vitro or in vivo. Control of intramyocardial graft size by this approach may allow optimization of cell-based therapy to obtain desired cardiac function postinfarction.