Epicardial delivery of collagen patches with adipose-derived stem cells in rat and minipig models of chronic myocardial infarction.

Although transplantation of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSC) in chronic myocardial infarction (MI) models is associated with functional improvement, its therapeutic value is limited due to poor long-term cell engraftment and survival. Thus, the objective of this study was to examine whether transplantation of collagen patches seeded with ADSC could enhance cell engraftment and improve cardiac function in models of chronic MI. With that purpose, chronically infarcted Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 58) were divided into four groups and transplanted with media, collagen scaffold (CS), rat ADSC, or CS seeded with rat ADSC (CS-rADSC). Cell engraftment, histological changes, and cardiac function were …