MacroPore – adipose-derived cells – potential to engraft & differentiate into heart muscle

Results presented at the Cardiovascular Cell and Gene Therapy Conference II

MacroPore Biosurgery, Inc. (MacroPore; Frankfurt: XMP) (MACP.DE) (XMP:GR) today announced pre-clinical findings that suggest for the first time that adipose-derived regenerative cells have the potential to engraft injured myocardium and express markers consistent with differentiation into cardiac myocytes. These results provide early indication that adipose-derived regenerative cells, which include adult stem cells, endothelial progenitor cells and other growth factor producing cells, and which were discovered by scientists at MacroPore, have the potential to repair damage associated with injured cardiac muscle following heart attack. The study, conducted by a Macropore team led by John Fraser, Ph.D., Vice President Research & Technology for MacroPore, reported the findings at the Cardiovascular Cell and Gene Therapy Conference II in Cambridge, MA.

The study protocol involved injecting approximately 1.0 million regenerative cells isolated from subcutaneous adipose tissue of Rosa26 mice into recipient mice with injured myocardium. Control mice received saline injections. Engraftment was demonstrated by detection of donor cells one, seven and 14 days following injection of the regenerative cells. Donor cells were not detected in uninjured mice or in infarcts of the control animals. At 14 days after injection expression of cardiac markers Myosin Heavy Chain and Troponin I was observed on donor cells consistent with the differentiation of adipose tissue-derived regenerative cells into cardiac myocytes.

“We are encouraged by our early findings, which are the first in a series of detailed studies we expect to issue on the use of adipose-derived regenerative cells for the treatment of heart disease,” said Marc H. Hedrick, M.D. Chief Scientific Officer of MacroPore. “These results are consistent with our preliminary research and with studies being performed at many other research institutes in the U.S. and abroad, which are increasingly using adipose tissue-derived cells for a variety of tissue repair applications.”

MacroPore and its collaborators have shown that adipose tissue is the richest known source of regenerative cells. MacroPore believes that therapeutically useful quantities of autologous regenerative cells can be harvested in real-time using adipose tissue as a cell source. These studies are funded in part through a National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Research grant awarded to Dr. Fraser to study the role of adipose-derived regenerative cells in cardiac tissue repair. The company is also conducting pre-clinical studies at the University of California, Los Angeles and at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. Other potential applications the company is exploring include bone regeneration, cosmetic and reconstructive surgery and wound healing.