Cardiac progenitor cells in brown adipose tissue repaired damaged myocardium

Cardiomyocyte (CM) regeneration is limited in adult life and is not sufficient to prevent myocardial infarction. Hence, the identification of a useful source of CM progenitors is of great interest for possible use in regenerative therapy. Mesenchymal stem cells in bone marrow, embryonic stem cells, and skeletal myoblasts are known sources of CM repletion; however, there are a number of critical problems for clinical application. In this study, we succeeded to identify CM progenitor cells in brown adipose tissue (BAT). Moreover, we showed that CM progenitor cells in BAT that existed in CD29-positive population could differentiate into CM with high efficiency. To confirm the in vivo effect of CD29+BAT-derived cells (BATDCs), we transplanted these cells into infarct border zone of an acute myocardial infarction model in rat. Results clearly indicated that implantation of CD29+ BATDCs led to the reduction of the infarction area and improvement of left ventricular function by replacing newly developed CMs in comparison with that by CD29+ white adipose tissue-derived cells or control saline. These findings suggest that BATDCs are one of the useful sources for a new strategy in CM regeneration.