Effect of bone marrow stem cells transplantation on apoptosis in cardiomyocytes of rats after acute myocardial infarction

Objective: To observe effects of transplantating allogenic bone marrow mono-nuclear cells on apoptosis in cardiomyocytes of rats after acute myocardial infarction. Methods: 30- Healthy, male wistar rats were randomly divided into 2 groups, control and transplant group, n=15 each. As soon as myocardial infarction (MI) model was established, Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium-low glucose (DMEM-LG) medium and BM-MNCs labeled with Bromodeoxyuridine (BrDU) were injected in the peri-infarct area in the control and transplant group respectively. After 4 weeks, apoptotic index (AI), expression of Bcl-2, Fas and FasL were detected. Results: 4 weeks after transplantation, cardiomyocyte apoptotic index (AI) and expression of Fas and FasL decreased significantly (P<0.05), while the expression of Bcl-2 increased significantly (P<0.05) in the transplant group. BM-MNCs labeled with BrdU were observed around injected sites under immunohistochemical examination. Conclusion: Allogenic BM-MNCs transplantaion regulates the expression of Bcl-2, Fas, and FasL thereby inhibits cardiomyocytes apoptosis after AMI.