RESUMO
Objective Myocardial infarction and subsequent heart failure remain the most dominant health challenges worldwide.Therapeutic angiogenesis has emerged as a potential novel treatment for severe ischemic heart disease and there is increasing evidence that cell transplantation may improve the perfusion and contractility of myocardium in animal models.This study was designed to examine the endothelial growth potential and whether transplantation of human umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells can improve local blood flow in a mouse ischemic hindlimb model.Methods The mesenchymal stem cells derived from human umbilical cord of passage 5 were differentiated in an endothelial differentiation medium containing vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in vitro.Samples were observed for 2 weeks.The human umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells were transplanted into a hindlimb ischemia mouse model in vivo.Four weeks later,immunofluence was used to identify the migration and differentiation of the transplanted cells towards endothelial linage.Laser Doppler perfusion image was used to evaluate the local blood flow of the hindlimb.Results Results After incubation with VEGF and bFGF,the human umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells started to form interconnected clusters and a network was formed.Four weeks after transplantation,the transplanted cells were sprouting f0rom the local injection and differentiated into endothelial cells,contributed to the recovery of local blood flow obviously as compared with control group.Conclusion Human umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells have the ability to differentiate into endothelial cells,contribute to the local angiogenesis in a hindlimb ischemia mouse model and represent a new source for therapeutic angiogenesis for clinical applications.