Intracoronary administration of cardiac progenitor cells alleviates left ventricular dysfunction in rats with a 30-day-old infarction
Authors: Fangping Yuan
Buddhadeb Dawn
Hiroshi Sato
Xian-Liang Tang
Yong Peng
Gregg Shirk
Ning Chen
Annarosa Leri
Sumit Tiwari
Greg Hunt
Jan Kajstura
Roberto Bolli
Shujing Dai
Gregg Rokosh
Santosh K Sanganalmath
Chengxin Li
Jianyao Mu
Piero Anversa
Journal: Circulation (2010)
Discipline: CLINICAL MEDICINE
Keywords: Cardiac progenitor cells; acute myocardial infarction; old MI; left ventricular function; intracoronary infusion
Affiliations: Institute of Molecular Cardiology, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA., From the Institute of Molecular Cardiology (X.-L.T., G.R., S.K.S., F.Y., H.S., J.M., S.D., C.L., N.C., Y.P., B.D., G.H., S.T., G.S., R.B.), University of Louisville, Louisville, Ky, and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (A.L., J.K., P.A.), Boston, Mass.

Abstract:  Background: Administration of cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) 4 hours after reperfusion ameliorates left ventricular function in rats with acute myocardial infarction (MI). Clinically, however, this approach is not feasible, because expansion of autologous CPCs after acute MI requires several weeks. Therefore, we sought to determine whether CPCs are beneficial in the more clinically relevant setting of an old MI (scar). Methods and results: One month after coronary occlusion/reperfusion, rats received an intracoronary infusion of vehicle or enhanced green fluorescent protein-labeled CPCs. Thirty-five days later, CPC-treated rats exhibited more viable myocardium in the risk region, less fibrosis in the noninfarcted region, and improved left ventricular function. Cells that stained positive for enhanced green fluorescent protein that expressed cardiomyocyte, endothelial, and vascular smooth muscle cell markers were observed only in 7 of 17 treated rats and occupied only 2.6% and 1.1% of the risk and noninfarcted regions, respectively. Transplantation of CPCs was associated with increased proliferation and expression of cardiac proteins by endogenous CPCs. Conclusions: Intracoronary administration of CPCs in the setting of an old MI produces beneficial structural and functional effects. Although exogenous CPCs can differentiate into new cardiac cells, this mechanism is not sufficient to explain the benefits, which suggests paracrine effects; among these, the present data identify activation of endogenous CPCs. This is the first report that CPCs are beneficial in the setting of an old MI when given by intracoronary infusion, the most widely applicable therapeutic approach in patients. Furthermore, this is the first evidence that exogenous CPC administration activates endogenous CPCs. These results open the door to new therapeutic applications for the use of autologous CPCs in patients with old MI and chronic ischemic cardiomyopathy. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 I was not able to understand the purpose of this paper. Is it a review or a commentary? Without any patient data, the authors summarised all the clinical symptoms and other details of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 just with data published before April 2020 (early phase of the covid-19 infections).  In this exhaustive review, we reviewed all of the published literature on COVID-19 to identify different types of clinical presentations affecting various organ systems, to provide an in-depth analysis that may prove useful for clinicians and health-workers on the frontline, battling the severe pandemic. , 
 Please provide meaningful and reasonable comments related to the scientific content of the paper. The authors are not obliged to answer to lay person comments. As for the lay question raised, the paper is a narrative review which was an invited, the details of meta data and such available at the publisher website. Regards Corresponding author ,