L-arginine from elder human mesenchymal stem cells induces angiogenesis and enhances therapeutic effects on ischemic heart diseases

Figure 7 Enhanced cardiac function and decreased infarct size after cell transplantation with mesenchymal stem cells. A: Representative M-mode echocardiography 28 days after cell transplantation with aged patient-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs); B and C: Ejection fraction and fractional shortening of bone marrow-derived MSC-arginine succinate lyase (BMSC-ASL) overexpressed and adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cell (ADSC) groups after myocardial infarction were significantly higher than those in other groups four weeks after cell transplantation (n = 5); D and E: Left ventricular internal systolic dimension and left ventricular internal diastolic dimension of BMSC-ASL overexpressed and ADSC groups were significantly lower than those in BMSC and BMSC-ASL short hairpin RNA groups 4 weeks after myocardial infarction (n = 5); F: Masson’s trichrome staining of infarct size 4 weeks after cell transplantation in all groups; G: Computerized morphometric analysis indicated that infarct size was significantly smaller in the BMSC-ASL overexpressed and ADSC groups than that in BMSCs and other groups. Infarct size in the ADSC group was smaller than that in both BMSC and BMSC-ASL short hairpin RNA groups (n = 3). ^aP < 0.05, ^bP < 0.01, ^cP < 0.001. ASL: Arginine succinate lyase; shRNA: Short hairpin RNA; BMSCs: Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells; ADSCs: Adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cell; NC: Negative control; LVID: Left ventricular internal systolic dimension; LVIDd: Left ventricular internal diastolic dimension.