Cardiac Cellular Transplantation: Transarterial Myoblast Transplantation in Dogs

Cardiac cellular transplantation seeks to replace cardiac myocytes irretrievably dam- aged by injury with adult progenitor cells capable of maturing into cardiac-like tissue. We sought to harvest and culture adult skeletal muscle myoblasts (satellite cells), to evaluate fluorescent labeling of myoblasts, and to develop a technique for cardiac cellu- lar transplantation using a transcoronary arterial transplantation (TCAT) method in healthy dogs. Four adult purpose-bred dogs underwent skeletal muscle biopsy and cul- ture of myoblasts in vitro.I s o l a t e d myoblasts were labeled with 1 of 3 different fluorescent dyes and injected into the left coronary artery using selective coronary artery catheterization. The safety of trans- planting myoblasts via TCAT was demon- strated by measurement of cardiac hemodynamics, plasma cardiac troponin-I level, and ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring. The successful entrapment of myoblasts within the coronary capillaries was demonstrated by simultaneous sampling Partial funding for this study was provided by the State of Illinois, Governor Venture Technology Fund.