Implantation of cardiac progenitor cells using self-assembling peptide improves cardiac function after myocardial infarction.

Implantation of various types of cells into the heart has been reported to be effective for heart failure, however, it is unknown what kinds of cells are most suitable for myocardial repair. To examine which types of cells are most effective, we injected cell-Puramatrix™ (PM) complex into the border area and overlaid the cell-PM patch on the myocardial infarction (MI) area. We compared cardiac morphology and function at 2 weeks after transplantation. Among clonal stem cell antigen-1 positive cardiac progenitors with PM (cSca-1/PM), bone marrow mononuclear cells with PM (BM/PM), skeletal myoblasts with PM (SM/PM), adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal cells with PM (AMC/PM), PM alone (PM), and non-treated MI group (MI), the infarct area of cSca-1/PM was smaller than that of BM/PM, SM/PM, PM and MI. cSca-1/PM and AMC/PM attenuated ventricular enlargement and restored cardiac function in comparison with MI. Capillary density in the infarct area of cSca-1/PM was higher than that of other five groups. The percentage of TUNEL positive cardiomyocytes in the infarct area of cSca-1/PM was lower than that of MI and PM. cSca-1 secreted VEGF and some of them differentiated into cardiomyocytes and vascular smooth muscle cells. These results suggest that transplantation of cSca-1/PM most effectively prevents cardiac remodeling and dysfunction through angiogenesis, inhibition of apoptosis and myocardial regeneration.