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(Circulation. 2008;118:649-657.)
© 2008 American Heart Association, Inc.

Heart Failure

Increased Cardiac Myocyte Progenitors in Failing Human Hearts

Hajime Kubo, PhD; Naser Jaleel, BS; Asangi Kumarapeli, MBBS, PhD; Remus M. Berretta, BS; George Bratinov, MD; Xiaoyin Shan, PhD; Hongmei Wang, MD; Steven R. Houser, PhD; Kenneth B. Margulies, MD

From the Department of Physiology, Temple University School of Medicine (H.K., N.J., R.M.B., S.R.H.), and Cardiovascular Institute, University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine (A.K., G.B., X.S., H.W., K.B.M.), Philadelphia, Pa.

Correspondence to Kenneth B. Margulies, MD, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 608 BRB II/III, 421 Curie Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19104. E-mail ken.margulies{at}uphs.upenn.edu

Received December 24, 2007; accepted May 23, 2008.

Background— Increasing evidence, derived mainly from animal models, supports the existence of endogenous cardiac renewal and repair mechanisms in adult mammalian hearts that could contribute to normal homeostasis and the responses to pathological insults.

Methods and Results— Translating these results, we isolated small c-kit⁺ cells from 36 of 37 human hearts using primary cell isolation techniques and magnetic cell sorting techniques. The abundance of these cardiac progenitor cells was increased nearly 4-fold in patients with heart failure requiring transplantation compared with nonfailing controls. Polychromatic flow cytometry of primary cell isolates (<30 µm) without antecedent c-kit enrichment confirmed the increased abundance of c-kit⁺ cells in failing hearts and demonstrated frequent coexpression of CD45 in these cells. Immunocytochemical characterization of freshly isolated, c-kit–enriched human cardiac progenitor cells confirmed frequent coexpression of c-kit and CD45. Primary cardiac progenitor cells formed new human cardiac myocytes at a relatively high frequency after coculture with neonatal rat ventricular myocytes. These contracting new cardiac myocytes exhibited an immature phenotype and frequent electric coupling with the rat myocytes that induced their myogenic differentiation.

Conclusions— Despite the increased abundance and cardiac myogenic capacity of cardiac progenitor cells in failing human hearts, the need to replace these organs via transplantation implies that adverse features of the local myocardial environment overwhelm endogenous cardiac repair capacity. Developing strategies to improve the success of endogenous cardiac regenerative processes may permit therapeutic myocardial repair without cell delivery per se.

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CLINICAL PERSPECTIVE

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Clinical Summaries
Circulation 2008 118: 607-608. [Extract] [Full Text]

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