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Abstract
Background
In an attempt to increase the therapeutic potential for myocardial regeneration, there is a quest for new cell sources and types for cell therapy protocols. The pathophysiology of heart diseases may affect cellular characteristics and therapeutic results.
Methods
To study the proliferative and differentiation potential of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), isolated from bone marrow (BM) of sternum, we made a comparative analysis between samples of patients with ischemic (IHD) or non-ischemic valvular (VHD) heart diseases. We included patients with IHD (n = 42) or VHD (n = 20), with average age of 60 years and no differences in cardiovascular risk factors. BM samples were collected (16.4 ± 6 mL) and submitted to centrifugation with Ficoll-Paque, yielding 4.5 ± 1.5 × 107 cells/mL.
Results
Morphology, immunophenotype and differentiation ability had proven that the cultivated sternal BM cells had MSC features. The colony forming unit-fibroblast (CFU-F) frequency was similar between groups (p = 0.510), but VHD samples showed positive correlation to plated cells vs. CFU-F number (r = 0.499, p = 0.049). The MSC culture was established in 29% of collected samples, achieved passage 9, without significant difference in expansion kinetics between groups (p > 0.05). Dyslipidemia and the use of statins was associated with culture establishment for IHD patients (p = 0.049 and p = 0.006, respectively).
Conclusions
Together, these results show that the sternum bone can be used as a source for MSC isolation, and that ischemic or valvular diseases do not influence the cellular yield, culture establishment or in vitro growth kinetics.