Transplantation of adipose-derived stem cells in experimental chronic chagasic cardiopathy

Abstract

Background: Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is a major cause of heart failure in Latin America. Tissue therapy has been investigated as a possible therapeutic option for patients with cardiovascular disease. Objective: This study evaluated the effects of mesenchymal stem cells therapy in an experimental model of chronic Chagasic cardiomyopathy. Methods: C57BL/6 mice were infected with 1000 trypomastigotes from the T. cruzi Colombian strain and, after six months of infection, were treated with mesenchymal human adiposed-derived stem cells (ADSC) or with Dulbecco/Vogt modified Eagle's minimal essential medium - DMEM (control). The treated group received two intraperitoneal injections of ADSC (1x106 cells/dose), with a month interval between the two doses. Before and after the first and second months of treatment, the chagasic and normal control animals underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing and electrocardiography. All animals were sacrificed under anesthesia after two months of treatment for histopathological analysis of the heart. Results: No improvement was observed in arrhythmias or cardiovascular function in animals treated with ADSC; however, ADSC-treated mice heart sections revealed a significant reduction in the number of inflammatory cells (p < 0.0001) and areas of fibrosis (p < 0.01) in comparison with chagasic animals treated with DMEM. Conclusion: Thus, it was concluded that administration of intraperitoneal ADSC can reduce inflammation and fibrosis in the heart of mice chronically infected with T. cruzi; however, there were no effects on cardiac function two months after transplantation.