Intramyocardial Transplantation of Autologous Endothelial Progenitor Cells for Therapeutic Neovascularization of Myocardial Ischemia

Background— We investigated whether catheter-based, intramyocardial transplantation of autologous endothelial progenitor cells can enhance neovascularization in myocardial ischemia. Methods and Results— Myocardial ischemia was induced by placement of an ameroid constrictor around swine left circumflex artery. Four weeks after constrictor placement, CD31+ mononuclear cells (MNCs) were freshly isolated from the peripheral blood of each animal. After overnight incubation of CD31+ MNCs in noncoated plates, nonadhesive cells (NA/CD31+ MNCs) were harvested as the endothelial progenitor cell–enriched fraction. Nonadhesive CD31− cells (NA/CD31− MNCs) were also prepared. Autologous transplantation of 107 NA/CD31+ MNCs, 107 NA/CD31− MNCs, or PBS was performed with a NOGA mapping injection catheter to target ischemic myocardium. In a parallel study, 105 human CD34+ MNCs, 105 human CD34− MNCs, or PBS was transplanted into ischemic myocardium of nude rats 10 minutes after ligation of the left anterior descending coron...