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Human umbilical cord blood cells improve cardiac function after myocardial infarction.

Hirata Y, Sata M, Motomura N, Takanashi M, Suematsu Y, Ono M, Takamoto S

Department of Cardiac Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. h-yasu@umin.ac.jp <h-yasu@umin.ac.jp>

Human umbilical cord blood (UCB) contains an abundance of immature stem/progenitor cells and has been clinically used as an alternative to bone marrow transplantation. In addition, cord blood can be obtained non-invasively, in contrast to invasive bone marrow aspiration. We investigated the potential of human UCB CD34(+) cells to improve cardiac function following myocardial infarction. Myocardial infarction was induced in Wistar rats by ligation of the left coronary artery. Either 2x10(5) human UCB CD34(+) cells or equivalent cell-free medium was injected into the injured myocardium of the rats following induction of myocardial infarction. CD34(+) cell transplantation significantly improved ventricular function as compared to the control group. Immunofluorescence staining for human CD34, CD45, and PECAM-1 revealed surviving cells in the myocardium. Our findings suggest that transplanted human cells survived and improved cardiac function following myocardial infarction. These results may show the usefulness of UCB CD34(+) cells for myocardial infarction.

Published 4 January 2005 in Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 327(2): 609-14.
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