Endoventricular porcine autologous myoblast transplantation can be successfully achieved with minor mechanical cell damage

Objective: Transplantation of skeletal myogenic precursor cells (mpc) into the myocardium using a non-surgical procedure. Methods: Closed-chest mpc transplantation was assessed in pigs using the NOGA-Biosense® device allowing both electromechanical mapping of the left ventricle (LV), and guided mpc injections through endocardium. Results: We successively established that: (1) adequate preimplantation handling of mpc can be achieved when mpc are kept in 0.1% serum albumin-containing medium until implantation; (2) mpc are neither retained nor destroyed in the catheter or the needle and their passage does not affect their survival, growth and differentiation; (3) large numbers of autologous mpc can be actually transplanted in the LV myocardium by transendocardial route, as assessed by post-mortem examination of pigs injected with iron-loaded mpc; (4) cell injection into the myocardium does not induce conspicuous cell mortality since more than 80% of mpc recovered from LV tissue are alive 15 min after injection; (5) mpc injections can be guided into circumscribed LV targets such as infarcted areas, as assessed by comparison of map injection sites with location of iron-loaded mpc at post-mortem examination of LV myocardium. Conclusion: This new approach may pave the way for a large spectrum of cell therapies targeting myocardial diseases.