By Journal of Clinical Investigation, [RxPG] One approach being developed as a way to improve heart function following heart attack is the injection of heart stem/progenitor cells directly into the heart. Now, a team of researchers, at Tokyo Women's Medical University, Japan, and Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan, has found that transplanting sheets of clonally expanded heart cells expressing the protein Sca-1 (cells that are heart stem/progenitor cells and that the authors term CPCs) improves heart function after a heart attack in mice.
The team, led by Katsuhisa Matsuura and Issei Komuro, found that CPCs not only formed heart muscle cells but also secreted a soluble molecule (sVCAM-1) that induced the migration of endothelial cells (which help form new blood vessels) and CPCs and prevented heart muscle cells dying from oxidative stress. In the mouse model of heart attack, preventing sVCAM-1 from binding to the protein VLA-4 inhibited the formation of new blood vessels and blocked CPC migration and survival, leading to a decreased ability of the transplanted CPC sheets to improve heart function. The authors conclude that these data provide new insight into the mechanisms by which heart stem/progenitor cells improve heart function following heart attack.
Publication:
Journal of Clinical Investigation
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This news story has been reviewed by Dr. Sanjukta Acharya before its publication on RxPG News website. Dr. Sanjukta Acharya, MBBS MRCP is the chief editor for RxPG News website. She oversees all the medical news submissions and manages the medicine section of the website. She has a special interest in nephrology. She can be reached for corrections and feedback at [email protected]
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