Combined Intramyocardial Delivery of Human Pericytes and Cardiac Stem Cells Additively Improves the Healing of Mouse Infarcted Hearts Through Stimulation of Vascular and Muscular Repair

Rationale:Optimization of cell therapy for cardiac repair may require the association of different cell populations with complementary activities. Objective:Compare the reparative potential of saphenous vein–derived pericytes (SVPs) with that of cardiac stem cells (CSCs) in a model of myocardial infarction, and investigate whether combined cell transplantation provides further improvements. Methods and Results:SVPs and CSCs were isolated from vein leftovers of coronary artery bypass graft surgery and discarded atrial specimens of transplanted hearts, respectively. Single or dual cell therapy (300 000 cells of each type per heart) was tested in infarcted SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency)-Beige mice. SVPs and CSCs alone improved cardiac contractility as assessed by echocardiography at 14 days post myocardial infarction. The effect was maintained, although attenuated at 42 days. At histological level, SVPs and CSCs similarly inhibited infarct size and interstitial fibrosis, SVPs were superior in induci...