INTRACORONARY DELIVERY OF MONONUCLEAR BONE MARROW CELLS IN EXPERIMENTAL MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION. THE OPTIMALIZATION OF DELIVERY TECHNIQUE

Aim: Intracoronary mononuclear bone marrow (MBM) cell transplantation using repeat catheter balloon inflation-deflation technique may be associated with serious complications. The aim of this project is to compare the effectiveness of 2 techniques of cell transport into the acutely infarcted myocardium: 1, the standard repeat intracoronary short-term, low-volume injections during angioplasty balloon inflations (technique A) and 2, a new technique - intracoronary continuous slow cell infusion in a higher volume without balloon inflations (technique B).
Methods: The study consists of pilot experiments and of the main randomized   protocol comparing techniques A and B. In the initial pilot study, the feasibility of individual procedures and the optimal methodology for the main protocol were tested in 27 pigs. In 24 of them, the experimental myocardial infarction (MI) was created by a 90-min occlusion of the LAD coronary artery using angioplasty balloon inflation. Allogeneic MBM cell transplantation into the infarcted myocardium was performed at various time intervals following MI. In addition, different cell doses and both cell delivery techniques were tested. Implanted cells were stained with green CMFDA fluorescent dye. Pigs were euthanized 1 or 24 hours after the  transplantation and the numbers of implanted MBM cells were quantified by fluorescent microscopy in the area of MI.
Results: Based on pilot experiments, the MBM cell dose of 20,000,000 and the 3-day interval from the induction of MI to the time of cell transplantation were selected for the main randomized protocol. The results of the main randomized protocol comparing both cell transplantation techniques are not available yet and will be presented at the congress.
Conclusion: Pilot experiments demonstrated the feasibility of the study. The final results will be presented at the congress.