Bruce Wentworth, Senior Director of Cardiovascular Research at Genzyme will give a presentation entitled “Retention of Cells after Transplantation†at the 4th International Stem Cell Research & Therapeutics, Apr 17-18, 2008 in Boston, MA.
Dr. Wentworth’s group has investigated the retention of syngeneic cultured cells (skeletal myoblasts, SM, and bone marrow stromal cells, BMSC) after transplantation into the normal beating Lewis rat heart. The acute retention of 4 million Europium (Eu) labeled SM was quantitatively analyzed after direct injection into LV cardiac muscle and the harvest of likely organs of dissemination. Approximately 80-85% of Eu labeled SM were lost from the heart within 1 minute of injection, a value that was stable for 1 hour. Analysis of distal organs indicated that SM were rapidly disseminated, presumably via the coronary venous circulation, principally to the lung then to a lesser extent to the liver by the systemic circulation. In separate studies we examined the longer-term survival of cells injected into the heart. SM or BMSC were labeled with BrdU, directly injected into cardiac muscle and the animals sacrificed 5 days and 3 weeks later. Transplanted cell quantity was estimated by direct counting in representative sections of cardiac tissue after histochemical identification of labeled nuclei. Five days after direct cell delivery there were an estimated 1.4% of the SM nuclei remaining in the injected hearts, and that quantum remained similar after 3 weeks. The identity of the injected SM was confirmed by immunohistochemical staining for fast skeletal myosin heavy chain expressed as a consequence of their differentiation into skeletal muscle fiber cells. There were 0.4% BMSC nuclei remaining in injected hearts 5 days post administration, and that number declined further to 0.1% after three weeks. These data suggest that the majority of either SM or BMSC injected were acutely lost from the heart and that SM ultimately survived and engrafted in the heart to a greater extent than BMSC.
The conference also features presentations from other leading organizations such as FDA, Geron, Joint Committee on Health Care Financing (by Senator Richard Moore), Merck, MIT, Novartis, Pfizer, Sangamo BioSciences, Sanofi Aventis, Stemagen, UCSB, University of Van Amsterdam, Whitehead Institute, and many more. The full agenda is available online at http://gtcbio.com/userAgenda.aspx?id=120.
GTCbio’s 4th Stem Cell Research & Therapeutics will take place on April 17-18, 2008 in Boston, MA and will cover Stem Cell Biology, Adult Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Differentiation of Stem Cells, Epigenomics & Reprogramming of Stem Cells, Regenerative Medicine & Therapeutics, Stem Cell Imaging, Regulatory Aspects & Funding Opportunities, Cancer Stem Cells, and Stem Cell Applications in Drug Discovery.
For more information including a detailed agenda, exhibitor opportunities and registration information visit www.gtcbio.com.
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