Hepatocyte Growth Factor Modification Enhances the Anti-Arrhythmic Properties of Human Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Background/Aims Chronic myocardial infarction (MI) results in the formation of arrhythmogenic substrates, causing lethal ventricular arrhythmia (VA). We aimed to determine whether mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) carrying a hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) gene modification (HGF-MSCs) decrease the levels of arrhythmogenic substrates and reduce the susceptibility to developing VA compared with unmodified MSCs and PBS in a swine infarction model.