Abstract #0235

Sustained Restoration of LV Dysfunction in a Pig Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury Model Using Human Amnion-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Tracked by Manganese-Enhanced MRI

Rajesh Dash¹, Paul Kim¹, Yuka Matsuura¹, Fumiaki Ikeno¹, Jennifer Lyons¹, Xiaohu Ge¹, Scott Metzler², Ngan Huang¹, Patricia Nguyen³, Joseph Wu¹,⁴, John Cooke¹, Pilar Ruiz-Lozano², Robert C. Robbins⁵, Michael V. McConnell¹, Alan C. Yeung¹, Phillip Harnish⁶, Phillip C. Yang¹

¹Medicine / Cardiovascular Medicine, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA, United States; ²Pediatrics, Lucille Packard Childrens Hospital, Stanford, CA, United States; ³Medicine / Cardiovascular Medicine, Palo Alto VA Medical Center, Stanford, CA, United States; ⁴Radiology, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA, United States; ⁵Cardiac Surgery, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA, United States; ⁶Eagle Vision Pharmaceutical Corporation, Downington, PA, United States

We delivered human amnion-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hAMSCs) intramyocardially and tracked in vivo survival using manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI). hAMSC therapy led to durable improvements cardiac function due to prolonged survival in vivo, which was confirmed by both MEMRI and co-localized signal from a HSV-tk PET reporter gene. Significant, persistent increases in ejection fraction, as well as reduced LV dilatation and scar volume were observed for up to 6 weeks after hAMSC therapy. Notably, MEMRI CNR increased over time in hAMSC-treated hearts, and immunohistochemistry confirmed the presence of hAMSCs with both human anti-mitochondrial and anti-nuclear antigen antibody staining.