Transplantation of adipose tissue-derived stem cells improves cardiac contractile function and electrical stability in a rat myocardial infarction model

• Treatment of pro-survival cocktail enhanced ADSC graft survival.
• Transplantation of ADSCs preserved cardiac function following myocardial infarction.
• ADSC transplantation decreased the incidence of induced ventricular tachycardia.
• Conduction velocity was changed by ADSC transplantation.

The transplantation of adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSCs) improves cardiac contractility after myocardial infarction (MI); however, little is known about the electrophysiological consequences of transplantation. The purpose of this study was to clarify whether the transplantation of ADSCs increases or decreases the incidence of ventricular tachyarrhythmias (VT) in a rat model of MI. MI was induced experimentally by permanent occlusion of the left anterior descending artery of Lewis rats. ADSCs were harvested from GFP-transgenic rats, and were cultured until passage four. ADSCs (10 × 106) resuspended in 100 μL saline or pro-survival cocktail (PSC), which enhances cardiac graft survival, were injected directly into syngeneic rat hearts 1 week after MI. The recipients of ADSCs suspended in PSC had a larger graft area compared with those receiving ASDCs suspended in saline at 1 week post-transplantation (number of graft cells/section: 148.7 ± 10.6 vs. 22.4 ± 3.4, p < 0.05, n = 5/group). Thereafter, all ADSC recipients were transplanted with ASDCs in PSC. ADSCs were transplanted into infarcted hearts, and the mechanical and electrophysiological functions were assessed. Echocardiography revealed that ADSC recipients had improved contractile function compared with those receiving PSC vehicle (fractional shortening: 21.1 ± 0.9 vs. 14.1 ± 1.2, p < 0.05, n ≥ 12/group). Four weeks post-transplantation, VT was induced via in vivo programmed electrical stimulation. The recipients of ADSCs showed a significantly lower incidence of induced VT compared with the control (31.3% vs. 83.3%, p < 0.05, n ≥ 12/group). To understand the electrical activity following transplantation, we performed ex vivo optical mapping using a voltage sensitive dye, and found that ADSC transplantation decreased conduction velocity and its dispersion in the peri-infarct area. These results suggest that ADSC transplantation improved cardiac mechanical and electrophysiological functions in subacute MI.