Comprehensive Characterization of Human Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells From Healthy Donors and Acute Myocardial Infarction Patients

Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs), namely Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI), are the leading cause of death worldwide. Current treatments of AMI are incapable of regenerating the necrotic tissue resultant from ischemia. Regarding this issue, Mesenchymal Stem/Stromal Cells (MSCs) have shown some promising results in early clinical trials. Autologous MSCs may not represent the best option for a MSC-based therapy since their performance can be impaired by the associated comorbidities, allied to the age, of AMI patients. The use of Bone Marrow (BM)-derived cells can also be potentially limiting since it involves an invasive procedure for cell collection; Adipose Tissue (AT) may represent an alternative promising source of MSCs for AMI settings. The aim of this work was to establish a comparative study between BM-derived MSCs from AMI patients, and BM-, AT-derived MSCs from healthy donors in terms of proliferative, angiogenic, secretory, and oxidative stress resistance potential, in order to identify the most adequate cell type for the clinical setting. Additionally, two different methods for the isolation of Adipose-derived Stem/Stromal Cells (ADSCs) were studied. Healthy BM MSCs presented a higher secretory and angiogenic potential, while AMI BM MSCs had the highest proliferative capacity. The incubation of MSCs under hypoxia (2% O2) boosted the aforementioned results. Further studies should be conducted to investigate the mechanisms underlying the improved in vitro proliferative capacity of AMI BM MSCs demonstrated herein. Concerning ADSCs isolation, these cells might be isolated from AT through a non-enzymatic method, albeit the slight lower yield when compared to the standard enzymatic-based protocol.