PNAS found that placental stem cells can regenerate the heart after a heart attack

Researchers at the icahn school of medicine at mount sinai have shown that stem cells from the placenta, called Cdx2 cells, can regenerate healthy heart cells after a heart attack in an animal model.

The surprising findings, published in the May 20 issue of the journal PNAS, may point to a new treatment for heart and other organ regeneration.

"Scientists have long believed that Cdx2 cells only produce placenta during early embryonic development, but have never before shown the ability to regenerate other organs, which is why this discovery is exciting. These findings for regenerative therapy (including in addition to the heart of the other organs) paved the way, "icahn sinai school of medicine, director of cardiovascular regenerative medicine Hina Chaudhry, says Dr" they almost look like a super charging stem cell population, because they can be targeted injured area, directly into the damage through the circulation system, which can avoid by the host immune system."

The mount sinai team had previously found that a mixed population of mouse placental stem cells helped the hearts of pregnant female mice recover after injury. In this study, they further found that placental stem cells could migrate to the mother's heart and directly to the site of the heart injury. The stem cells then program themselves into heart cells to help repair.

The aim of the new study was to determine which types of stem cells could regenerate heart cells. The researchers first studied Cdx2 cells, the most common stem cell type identified in the mixed population, and found that they accounted for the highest proportion (40 percent) of placenta-assisted hearts.

To test the regenerative properties of Cdx2 cells, the researchers induced heart attacks in three groups of male mice. One group received Cdx2 stem cells from the placenta of mice in the final trimester, one group received placental cells that did not express Cdx2, and a third group received saline control.

The team used magnetic resonance imaging to analyze all the mice immediately after the heart attack, for three months. They found that every mouse in the Cdx2 stem cell treatment group showed significant improvement and regeneration of heart-healthy tissue. After three months, the stem cells migrate directly to heart damage and form new blood vessels and new cardiomyocytes (beating cardiomyocytes). Mice injected with saline and non-cdx2 placental cells developed heart failure, and their hearts showed no evidence of regeneration.

The researchers also found that Cdx2 cells of two other features: all the protein they contain embryonic stem cells, studies have shown that they can produce all the organs of the body, there are other protein, can directly enter the injury, this is the embryonic stem cells can't do, they seem to still can escape the host's immune response. When applied from the placenta to another animal, these cells are not rejected by the immune system.

"These properties are critical to the development of human stem cell therapy strategies that we have started to implement, as this could be a promising treatment for humans. We have been able to isolate Cdx2 cells from the human placenta, so hopefully we can design a better human stem cell therapy than we have in the past, "explained Dr Chaudhry.

"These results are very surprising for us, because in the human heart disease clinical trials testing of other cell types, in has not been proven to be heart cells in a petri dish, but studies have shown that these did happen, when we inject them into petri dish, they know exactly where to go," the article for the first time Sangeetha Vadakke - Dr Madathil said. (source: biocom)