Objective To study the short and medium term effect of myocardial contractile force by implantation of endothelial progenitor cells （EPCs） in the myocardial infarction model. Methods Hundred and twenty SD rats were equally and randomly divided into experimental group and control group （60 rats in each group）. Acute myocardial infarction model was created by ligation of LAD. Autologous EPCs were purified from peripheral blood then implanted into the acute myocardial infarct site via topical injection. IMDM were used in control group. Specimens and muscle strip were harvested at 3, 6 weeks, 6, 8 and 12 months after EPCs implantation for contractile force study and to detect the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor（VEGF）, basic fibroblast growth factor （bFGF） and Ⅷ factor by immunohistology and video image digital analysis system. Results The expression of VEGF, bFGF and the microvessel counts in experimental group were much higher than those of control group（P〈 0.01） at 3, 6 weeks and 6 months after transplantation. The contractile force in experimental group was better than that in control group（P〈0.01） at the same time. But from 8 months after implantation, the contractile force and so on were not up in the experimental group. Conclusion EPCs, after being implanted into infarct myocardium, shows the ability of improvement of the contractile performance in infarcted myocardium by means of angiogenesis and vasculogenesis and the medium term results are persistent.
Objective To explore the induction of cardiomyogenesis of microRNA-129 （mir-129） in rat bone marrowmesenchymal stem cells （BM-MSCs） and its mechanism. Methods BM-MSCs were isolated from Sprague-Dawley rats and cultured in vitro. Overexpression of mir-129 or both mir-129 and glycogen synthase kinase-3β （GSK-3β） in BM-MSCs was produced with a lentiviral vector system. All the BM-MSCs were divided into four groups: control group （MSCs），Lentiviral vectors＋MSCs group （Lv-MSCs），mir-129 transfection group （mir-129-MSCs），and mir-129＋GSK-3βdouble transfection group （mir-129＋GSK-3β-MSCs）. Five-Azacytidine （5-Aza） （10 μmol/L） was used to induce BM-MSCsdifferentiation into cardiomyocytes. On the 1st，5 th，10 th，15 th and 20 th day after induction，realtime-PCR was performedto detect mRNA levels of GATA-4，Nkx2.5 and MEF-2C. On the 10 th，15 th and 20 th day after induction，Western blottingwas performed to examine expression levels of cTnI，Desmin，GSK-3β，phosphorylated β-catenin and dephosphorylated β-catenin. Results Compared with the control group，at respective time points，mRNA levels of cardiomyogenic genes and expression levels of cardiomyocyte-related proteins of mir-129 transfection group were significantly elevated，theexpression level of GSK-3β was significantly decreased，and the ratio of dephosphorylated/phosphorylated β-catenin was significantly elevated. When both mir-129 and GSK-3β were overexpressed in BM-MSCs，mRNA levels of cardiomyogenicgenes and expression levels of cardiomyocyte-related proteins were significantly lower than those of mir-129 transfection group，and the ratio of dephosphorylated/phosphorylated β-catenin was significantly decreased. Conclusion Overexpression of mir-129 can promote cardiomyogenesis of rat BM-MSCs possibly via inhibiting GSK-3β production and thus decreasing the inhibition of phosphorylation of β-catenin which then enters the nucleus and activates downstream signaling pathways that regulate cardiomyogenic differentiation of BM-MSCs.
Objective To study the effect of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs) implantation into infarcted myocardium on cytokine secretion and angiogenesis. Methods 24 Guizhou xiang porcine were equally divided into experimental group and control group randomly. Three ml bone marrow was extracted from the posterior superior iliac spine. MSCs were cultured according to the methods of Wakitani’s. After being co-cultured with 5-azacytidine for 24 hours, these cells were labeled with bromodeoxyuridine(BrdU). Autologus MSCs were implanted into the acute myocardial infarct site both via the distal segment of the ligated left anterior descending artery (LAD) and topical injection. 3 amp; 6 weeks after transplantation, the samples from experimental group and control group were collected to detect the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and Ⅷ factor by immunohistology and video image digital analysis system. Results The expression of VEGF, bFGF and the microvessel counts in the experimental group were much higher than those of control group (Plt;0.01) at 3 and 6 weeks after transplantation. Conclusion MSCs, after being implanted into infarcted myocardium, shows the ability of secreting VEGF, bFGF, with subsequent angiogenesis.