Bioriend 转自 生物谷

近日，在2014年美国芝加哥心脏协会科学年会上，来自西奈山伊坎医学院的科学家通过研究发现，在个体心脏病发作后将干细胞因子直接运输至损伤的心肌组织中或许可以帮助损伤的心肌组织进行修复并且再生。

研究者Kenneth Fish博士表示，我们的研究发现为治疗个体心脏病发作后利用干细胞进行修复治疗提供了新的思路；这项研究中，我们通过诱导临床前模型心脏病发作，随后将干细胞因子通过基因转移的方式直接运送至损伤的心脏组织中，来检测其对损伤组织的再生修复能力。新型的干细胞因子基因转移运输系统可以使得成体的c-Kit阳性心脏干细胞发生聚集并且扩张，从而进入心脏损伤位点来逆转心脏病发作引发的心脏损伤。

c-Kit阳性细胞是一种关键的心脏细胞因子或蛋白受体，其可以结合干细胞因子，自然状态下其在心肌梗死后可以通过细胞增殖的方式不断增加进行心脏的修复工作。本文研究工作揭示了，干细胞因子基因转移策略可以将潜在的成体干细胞转移至心脏损伤的位点来改善心脏的心泵功能，及减少心肌梗死的风险。而该项研究也为揭示少量成体干细胞可以用来修复心脏损伤的区域并且改善患者预后的理论提供新的证据。

最后研究者表示，心脏疾病一直是引发美国人死亡的主要原因，文章的研究为开发心肌病的干预策略来抑制心衰的恶化提供了新的希望，目前研究人员同Celladon公司进行联合研究，旨在开发AAV1/SERCA2a基因疗法来治疗心衰。

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"Our discoveries offer insight into the power of stem cells to regenerate damaged muscle after a heart attack," says lead study author Kenneth Fish, PhD, Director of the Cardiology Laboratory for Translational Research, Cardiovascular Research Center, Mount Sinai Heart, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

In the study, Mount Sinai researchers administered stem cell factor (SCF) by gene transfer shortly after inducing heart attacks in pre-clinical models directly into damaged heart tissue to test its regenerative repair response. A novel SCF gene transfer delivery system induced the recruitment and expansion of adult c-Kit positive (cKit+) cardiac stem cells to injury sites that reversed heart attack damage. In addition, the gene therapy improved cardiac function, decreased heart muscle cell death, increased regeneration of heart tissue blood vessels, and reduced the formation of heart tissue scarring.

"It is clear that the expression of the stem cell factor gene results in the generation of specific signals to neighboring cells in the damaged heart resulting in improved outcomes at the molecular, cellular, and organ level," says Roger J. Hajjar, MD, senior study author and Director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at Mount Sinai. "Thus, while still in the early stages of investigation, there is evidence that recruiting this small group of stem cells to the heart could be the basis of novel therapies for halting the clinical deterioration in patients with advanced heart failure."

cKit+ cells are a critical cardiac cytokine, or protein receptor, that bond to stem cell factors. They naturally increase after myocardial infarction and through cell proliferation are involved in cardiac repair......