Abstract 20345: Transplantation of Cardiac Progenitor Cells With the Self-Assembling Peptides Scaffold Into the Pericardial Space Improves Cardiac Function After Acute Myocardial Infarction in Mice

Background: Cardiac progenitor cell (CPC) therapy for heart disease has been examined enthusiastically, however; optimal scaffolds to ensure the engraftment of transplanted cells are still elusive. Methods: We used clonally expanded stem cell antigen 1-positive CPCs from adult mice and produced a three-dimensional hydrogel scaffold (CPC-scaffold) in which CPCs were cultured up to 8 weeks with high viability. CPC-scaffold contained RGD peptide-conjugated self-assembling peptide with insulin-like growth factor-1. Immediately after creating myocardial infarction (MI), we transplanted CPC-scaffold into the pericardial space on the surface of MI area. Results: Four weeks after transplantation, both transplantation of red fluorescent protein expressing CPCs and in situ hybridization analysis in sex-mismatched transplantation revealed engraftment of CPCs in the transplanted scaffold that was celluralized with host cells. Averaged scar area of CPC-scaffold-treated group was significantly smaller than that of non-...