Myoblast transplantation for cardiac repair: a clinical perspective

Myoblast transplant for cardiac repair offers an alternative therapeutic modality for cardiac repair. This novel cell based approach has the potential for replacing cardiomyocytes dam-aged during the disease process. Studies in the small and large animals and human phase-I trials have shown that myoblast transplantation into damaged myocardium results in the improved myocardial function and hemodynamic parameters. However, many aspects of myoblast transplantation such as the mechanism by which myocardial function improves and the fate of the transplanted myoblasts remain unclear, shrouding the success of myoblast transplantation therapy. The survival of the donor cells post transplantation is an obstacle to overcome. We studied the fate of human myoblasts xenograft carrying therapeu-tic and reporter genes in porcine heart models of chronic ischemia and infarction with en-couraging results. The salient feature of our study was the long-term survival of the xeno-myoblasts for up to 7 months of observation using a minimal dose of 5mg/kg cyclosporine transiently. The immunosuppression starting 5 days prior to and continuing for six weeks post cell transplantation effectively supported the long term survival of the xenomyoblast