Umbilical cord blood-mesenchymal stem cells and carvedilol reduce doxorubicin- induced cardiotoxicity: Possible role of insulin-like growth factor-1.

In this study, we tried to demonstrate the effects of adding human umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells (hUCB-MSCs) to carvedilol in improving the doxorubicin- induced cardiotoxicity in rats. Rats were randomly divided into four groups: group 1: control group, group 2: doxorubicin untreated group, group 3: rats injected with doxorubicin and received carvedilol, and group 4: rats injected with doxorubicin and received carvedilol and stem cell-treated. Electrocardiography (ECG) was performed to assess cardiac function after animals were sacrificed. Cardiac muscle sections were examined histologically using H&E, Masson trichrome and immunohistochemically using caspase 3 immunostaining. The morphometric and statistical analysis was performed. Levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were measured. We concluded that combination of hUCB-MSCs and carvedilol markedly improves histological and immunohistochemical structure of cardiac muscle fibers and restores cardiac function in doxorubicin- induced cardiotoxicity in rats.