Objective To study the influence of autologous bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) on myocardial structure and cardiac function after being implantated into acute infarcted myocardial site. Methods Bone marrow was aspirated from the posterosuperior iliac spine of Guizhou Xiang swine. After being isolated, cultured and co cultured with 5 azacytidine, either autologous BMSCs (total cells 2×10 6, experimental group, n =12), or a comparable volume of culture medium (control group, n =12), was injected into the left anterior descending(LAD) branch of coronary artery just distal to the ligation site of the LAD. The same volume of BMSCs or culture medium was injected into several spots in the infarcted myocardium. Echocardiographic measurements were performed three or six weeks after implantation to assess the myocardial structure and cardiac function. Results Left ventricular function, including eject fraction(EF), fractional shortening and wall thickening, were higher in experimental group when compared with control group. The thickness of the ventricular wall and septum was also found increased while the left ventricular chamber size was smaller in experimental group. Conclusion Implantation of BMSCs into the infarcted myocardium is believed to attenuate the remodeling process, inhibit the extent of wall thinning and dilatation of the ventricular chamber. BMSCs implantation may also improve the contractile ability of the myocardium and cardiac function.
Objective To explore the induction of cardiomyogenesis of microRNA-129 （mir-129） in rat bone marrowmesenchymal stem cells （BM-MSCs） and its mechanism. Methods BM-MSCs were isolated from Sprague-Dawley rats and cultured in vitro. Overexpression of mir-129 or both mir-129 and glycogen synthase kinase-3β （GSK-3β） in BM-MSCs was produced with a lentiviral vector system. All the BM-MSCs were divided into four groups: control group （MSCs），Lentiviral vectors＋MSCs group （Lv-MSCs），mir-129 transfection group （mir-129-MSCs），and mir-129＋GSK-3βdouble transfection group （mir-129＋GSK-3β-MSCs）. Five-Azacytidine （5-Aza） （10 μmol/L） was used to induce BM-MSCsdifferentiation into cardiomyocytes. On the 1st，5 th，10 th，15 th and 20 th day after induction，realtime-PCR was performedto detect mRNA levels of GATA-4，Nkx2.5 and MEF-2C. On the 10 th，15 th and 20 th day after induction，Western blottingwas performed to examine expression levels of cTnI，Desmin，GSK-3β，phosphorylated β-catenin and dephosphorylated β-catenin. Results Compared with the control group，at respective time points，mRNA levels of cardiomyogenic genes and expression levels of cardiomyocyte-related proteins of mir-129 transfection group were significantly elevated，theexpression level of GSK-3β was significantly decreased，and the ratio of dephosphorylated/phosphorylated β-catenin was significantly elevated. When both mir-129 and GSK-3β were overexpressed in BM-MSCs，mRNA levels of cardiomyogenicgenes and expression levels of cardiomyocyte-related proteins were significantly lower than those of mir-129 transfection group，and the ratio of dephosphorylated/phosphorylated β-catenin was significantly decreased. Conclusion Overexpression of mir-129 can promote cardiomyogenesis of rat BM-MSCs possibly via inhibiting GSK-3β production and thus decreasing the inhibition of phosphorylation of β-catenin which then enters the nucleus and activates downstream signaling pathways that regulate cardiomyogenic differentiation of BM-MSCs.