"Measuring chemotactic factors secreted from mesenchymal stromal cells on an extracellular matrix for myocardial infarction"
Host lab: Claus Svane Sondergaard
University of California, Davis
Coronary heart disease is a leading cause of death in the United States. Current therapies only slow disease progression with heart transplantation being the only curative option. This project proposes to use an extracellular matrix (ECM) device to deliver mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) to damaged cardiac tissue after myocardial infarction in order to regenerate and restore its function. My project aims to prove that seeding MSCs on matrix alters chemotactic cytokine secretion in a manner that is beneficial for the MSCs and surrounding target tissue. The specific cytokines being tested are chemotactic factors: hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and stromal cell derived factor one (SDF1α). Thus far, results show clear indication that secretion of both HGF and SDF1α are altered when cells are seeded on ECM with resulting improvement in vitro on endothelial cells function.