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  • Cyclin D2 Overexpression En...
    Zhao, Meng; Nakada, Yuji; Wei, Yuhua; Bian, Weihua; Chu, Yuxin; Borovjagin, Anton V; Xie, Min; Zhu, Wuqiang; Nguyen, Thanh; Zhou, Yang; Serpooshan, Vahid; Walcott, Gregory P; Zhang, Jianyi

    Circulation (New York, N.Y.), 07/2021, Volume: 144, Issue: 3
    Journal Article

    Human induced pluripotent stem cells with normal (wild-type) or upregulated (overexpressed) levels of CCND2 (cyclin D2) expression were differentiated into cardiomyocytes (CCND2 CMs or CCND2 CMs, respectively) and injected into infarcted pig hearts. Acute myocardial infarction was induced by a 60-minute occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery. Immediately after reperfusion, CCND2 CMs or CCND2 CMs (3×10 cells each) or an equivalent volume of the delivery vehicle was injected around the infarct border zone area. The number of the engrafted CCND2 CMs exceeded that of the engrafted CCND2 CMs from 6- to 8-fold, rising from 1 week to 4 weeks after implantation. In contrast to the treatment with the CCND2 CMs or the delivery vehicle, the administration of CCND2 CM was associated with significantly improved left ventricular function, as revealed by magnetic resonance imaging. This correlated with reduction of infarct size, fibrosis, ventricular hypertrophy, and cardiomyocyte apoptosis, and increase of vascular density and arterial density, as per histologic analysis of the treated hearts. Expression of cell proliferation markers (eg, Ki67, phosphorylated histone 3, and Aurora B kinase) was also significantly upregulated in the recipient cardiomyocytes from the CCND2 CM-treated than from the CCND2 CM-treated pigs. The cell proliferation rate and the hypoxia tolerance measured in cultured human induced pluripotent stem cell cardiomyocytes were significantly greater after treatment with exosomes isolated from the CCND2 CMs (CCND2 Exos) than from the CCND2 CMs (CCND2 Exos). As demonstrated by our study, CCND2 Exos can also promote the proliferation activity of postnatal rat and adult mouse cardiomyocytes. A bulk miRNA sequencing analysis of CCND2 Exos versus CCND2 Exos identified 206 and 91 miRNAs that were significantly upregulated and downregulated, respectively. Gene ontology enrichment analysis identified significant differences in the expression profiles of miRNAs from various functional categories and pathways, including miRNAs implicated in cell-cycle checkpoints (G2/M and G1/S transitions), or the mechanism of cytokinesis. We demonstrated that enhanced potency of CCND2 CMs promoted myocyte proliferation in both grafts and recipient tissue in a large mammal acute myocardial infarction model. These results suggest that CCND2 CMs transplantation may be a potential therapeutic strategy for the repair of infarcted hearts.