An experimental study of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells transplantation to treat myocardial infarction in rabbits

Objective:To investigate the effects of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) transplantation on the therapy of myocar- dial infarction (MI) in rabbits.Methods:36 rabbits were randomly divided into three groups:the control group,the MI group,the MSCs group.MI was induced by ligation of left anterior descending branch of the coronary artery.The MSCs labeled by DAPI were transplanted after MI 1 h.Echocardiography was performed to evaluate the cardiac function before operation and 2 weeks and 4 weeks after MI.After four weeks,specimens were harvested from the transplanted areas and observed histologically.Re- sults:Four weeks after AMI,the labeled cells were viable in the recipient heart.In contrast with the MI group,the heart function and vascular density of the MSCs group had significant difference (P0.05).Conclusion:The rabbit MSCs induced by 5-aza and later implanted into the rabbit injured cardiac muscle can survive and improve the host's cardiac function.