Hyperglycemia Inhibits Cardiac Stem Cell–Mediated Cardiac Repair and Angiogenic Capacity

Background—The impact of diabetes mellitus on the cardiac regenerative potential of cardiac stem cells (CSCs) is unknown yet critical, given that individuals with diabetes mellitus may well require CSC therapy in the future. Using human and murine CSCs from diabetic cardiac tissue, we tested the hypothesis that hyperglycemic conditions impair CSC function. Methods and Results—CSCs cultured from the cardiac biopsies of patients with diabetes mellitus (hemoglobin A1c, 10±2%) demonstrated reduced overall cell numbers compared with nondiabetic sourced biopsies (P=0.04). When injected into the infarct border zone of immunodeficient mice 1 week after myocardial infarction, CSCs from patients with diabetes mellitus demonstrated reduced cardiac repair compared with nondiabetic patients. Conditioned medium from CSCs of patients with diabetes mellitus displayed a reduced ability to promote in vitro blood vessel formation (P=0.02). Similarly, conditioned medium from CSCs cultured from the cardiac biopsies of strepto...