Theraputic Effect of Human Stem Cell Treatment on Cardiac Function and Myocardia Perfusion

Abstract

My project focuses on comparing the efficacy of treatment with human bone marrow or human adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) on a myocardial infarction in a mouse model. Cardiovascular disease kills about 17.1 million people each year. There are many types of cardiovascular disease, but my project focuses on myocardial ischemia. Clinical trials have shown improvements of cardiac function following the treatment of myocardial infarction with bone marrow treatments. Human bone marrow and ASCs were injected into infarcted areas of hearts in a mouse model. Echocardiography was performed before infarction and after 30 days of treatment to determine the function of the heart. Sections of embedded hearts were stained to enable capillary density counting as an indicator of reperfusion of the scarred myocardium in the peri-infarct region. We found no significant difference in the heart function between treatment with human ASCs and human bone marrow stem cells on myocardial reperfusion. However, hearts receiving human ASC showed a significant increase in reperfusion compared to the hearts receiving human bone marrow stem cells.