Sustained IGF-1 Secretion by Adipose-Derived Stem Cells Improves Infarcted Heart Function.

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

The mechanism by which stem cell-based therapy improves heart function is still unknown, but paracrine mechanisms seem to be involved. Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) secrete several factors, including insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), which may contribute to myocardial regeneration. Our aim was to investigate whether the overexpression of IGF-1 in ADSCs (IGF-1-ADSCs) improves treatment of chronically infarcted rat hearts. ADSCs were transduced with a lentiviral vector to induce IGF-1 overexpression. IGF-1-ADSCs transcribe100- to 200-fold more IGF-1 mRNA levels compared to nontransduced ADSCs. IGF-1 transduction did not alter ADSC immunophenotypic characteristics even under hypoxic conditions. However, IGF-1-ADSCs proliferate at higher rates and release greater amounts of growth factors such as IGF-1, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) under normoxic and hypoxic conditions. Importantly, IGF-1 secreted by IGF-1-ADSCs is functional given that Akt-1 phosphorylation was remarkably induced in neonatal cardiomyocytes cocultured with IGF-1-ADSCs, and this increase was prevented with phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor treatment. Next, we tested IGF-1-ADSCs in a rat myocardial infarction (MI) model. MI was performed by coronary ligation, and 4 weeks after MI, animals received intramyocardial injections of either ADSCs (n = 7)

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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