Arrhythmia susceptibility in mice after therapy with beta-catenin-transduced hematopoietic progenitor cells after myocardial ischemia/reperfusion.

BACKGROUND Hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) can improve cardiac function after myocardial infarction. However, occurrence of arrhythmias is a potential limitation of cell therapy. In this study, we investigated the cardiac electrophysiological properties of ex vivo expanded HPCs, generated by beta-catenin gene transfer, after transcoronary delivery in a murine model of ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. METHODS AND RESULTS To assess arrhythmia inducibility of ex vivo expanded HPCs, mice were subjected to I/R and assigned to sham operation (n = 8), I/R (n = 21) and HPC (n = 15) treatment. Six weeks later, mice were subjected to long-term electrocardiogram recording and in vivo transvenous electrophysiological study. After I/R, mice showed a significant prolongation of conduction and repolarization compared with sham-operated mice. There was a marked increase in ventricular ectopic activity in infarcted mice as compared with sham-operated mice. Cardiac electrophysiological parameters and ventricular ectopic activity were not altered in mice treated with HPCs in comparison with control I/R mice. CONCLUSION Transcoronary delivery of genetically ex vivoexpanded HPCs did not alter the electrophysiological properties in mice after I/R. Therefore, ex vivo beta-catenin-mediated HPC expansion may represent an attractive therapeutic option for cell transplantation treatment of myocardial infarction without electrophysiological side effects.