Intra-Myocardial Injection of Both Growth Factors and Heart Derived Sca-1⁺/CD31⁻ Cells Attenuates Post-MI LV Remodeling More Than Does Cell Transplantation Alone: Neither Intervention Enhances Functionally Significant Cardiomyocyte Regeneration

Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) are two potent cell survival and regenerative factors in response to myocardial injury (MI). We hypothesized that simultaneous delivery of IGF+HGF combined with Sca-1+/CD31− cells would improve the outcome of transplantation therapy in response to the altered hostile microenvironment post MI. One million adenovirus nuclear LacZ-labeled Sca-1+/CD31− cells were injected into the peri-infarction area after left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) ligation in mice. Recombinant mouse IGF-1+HGF was added to the cell suspension prior to the injection. The left ventricular (LV) function was assessed by echocardiography 4 weeks after the transplantation. The cell engraftment, differentiation and cardiomyocyte regeneration were evaluated by histological analysis. Sca-1+/CD31− cells formed viable grafts and improved LV ejection fraction (EF) (Control, 54.5+/−2.4; MI, 17.6+/−3.1; Cell, 28.2+/−4.2, n = 9, P<0.01). IGF+HGF significantly enhanced the benefits of cell transplantation as evidenced by increased EF (38.8+/−2.2; n = 9, P<0.01) and attenuated adverse structural remodeling. Furthermore, IGF+HGF supplementation increased the cell engraftment rate, promoted the transplanted cell survival, enhanced angiogenesis, and minimally stimulated endogenous cardiomyocyte regeneration in vivo. The in vitro experiments showed that IGF+HGF treatment stimulated Sca-1+/CD31− cell proliferation and inhibited serum free medium induced apoptosis. Supperarray profiling of Sca-1+/CD31− cells revealed that Sca-1+/CD31− cells highly expressed various trophic factor mRNAs and IGF+HGF treatment altered the mRNAs expression patterns of these cells. These data indicate that IGF-1+HGF could serve as an adjuvant to cell transplantation for myocardial repair by stimulating donor cell and endogenous cardiac stem cell survival, regeneration and promoting angiogenesis.