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(Circulation Research. 2009;104:398.)
© 2009 American Heart Association, Inc.

Integrative Physiology

Fate Of Culture-Expanded Mesenchymal Stem Cells in The Microvasculature

In Vivo Observations of Cell Kinetics

Catalin Toma, William R. Wagner, Shivani Bowry, Abigail Schwartz, Flordeliza Villanueva

From the Cardiovascular Institute (C.T., S.B., A.S., F.V.) and the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine (W.R.W.), University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pa.

Correspondence to Catalin Toma, MD, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 200 Lothrop St, A-332, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. E-mail tomac{at}upmc.edu

Vascular delivery of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) following myocardial infarction is under clinical investigation. Little is known about the microvascular fate of MSCs. We used intravital microscopy of rat cremaster muscle microcirculation to track intraarterially delivered MSCs. Rat MSCs (average diameter, 23 µm) were bolused into the ipsilateral common iliac artery. Interrogation of an arteriole–venule pair revealed that 92±7% (n=6) of MSCs arrest and interrupt flow during first pass at the precapillary level, resulting in decreased flow in the feeding arteriole (velocity decreased from 6.3±1.0 to 4.6±1.3 mm/sec; P<0.001). MSC deformability evaluated using filtration through polycarbonate membranes revealed that the cortical tension of MSCs (0.49±0.07 dyne/cm, n=9) was not different from that of circulating mononuclear cells (0.50±0.05 dyne/cm, n=7). When intravital microscopy was performed 3 days following injection, the number of MSCs in the cremaster further decreased to 14% of the initial number, because of cell death in situ. In vivo labeling of the basement membrane revealed that at 1 day, the surviving cells were spread out on the luminal side of the microvessel, whereas at 3 days, they integrated in the microvascular wall. Despite their deformability, intraarterially delivered MSCs entrap at the precapillary level because of their large size, with a small proportion of surviving MSCs integrating in a perivascular niche.

Key Words: mesenchymal stem cells • microcirculation • ischemia

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