ABSTRACT
Objective:To investigate the survival of rabbits receiving autologous left auricle cardiomyocytes transplantation into the infarcted myocardium and to assess the effect of transplantation on the peripheral blood supply, heart rate, and cardiac function. Methods: Healthy adult rabbits were randomly divided into transplantation group (n=8) and control group (n=8). The myocardial infarction (MI) models were established by ligating the left anterior descending arteries in all rabbits. Four weeks later the left auricles were harvested and the auricle cardiomyocytes were isolated and labelled with DAPI ex vivo. Rabbits in the transplantation group were injected with DAPI-labelled cell suspension into the infarcted areas and those in control group received culture medium. All the rabbits were examined by electrocardiogram (ECG) and 2-D ultrasonic cardiogram (UCG) 4 weeks after transplantation. Specimens were harvested from the transplanted areas and observed histologically. Results: All rabbits survived 4 weeks after transplantation. ECG showed that the heart rate in transplantation group was faster than that in control group (P
