Functional Effects of a Tissue-Engineered Cardiac Patch From Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes in a Rat Infarct Model

A tissue-engineered cardiac patch provides a method to deliver cardiomyoctes to the injured myocardium with high cell retention and large, controlled infarct coverage, enhancing the ability of cells to limit remodeling after infarction. The patch environment can also yield increased survival. In the present study, we sought to assess the efficacy of a cardiac patch made from human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) to engraft and limit left ventricular (LV) remodeling acutely after infarction. Cardiac patches were created from hiPSC-CMs and human pericytes (PCs) entrapped in a fibrin gel and implanted acutely onto athymic rat hearts. hiPSC-CMs not only remained viable after in vivo culture, but also increased in number by as much as twofold, consistent with colocalization of human nuclear antigen, cardiac troponin T, and Ki-67 staining. CM+PC patches led to reduced infarct sizes compared with myocardial infarction-only controls at week 4, and CM+PC patch recipient hearts exhibited greater fractional shortening over all groups at both 1 and 4 weeks after transplantation. However, a decline occurred in fractional shortening for all groups over 4 weeks, and LV thinning was not mitigated. CM+PC patches became vascularized in vivo, and microvessels were more abundant in the host myocardium border zone, suggesting a paracrine mechanism for the improved cardiac function. PCs in a PC-only control patch did not survive 4 weeks in vivo. Our results indicat...
Source: Stem Cells Translational Medicine - Category: Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Pluripotent Stem Cells Source Type: research