Wharton’s Jelly Mesenchymal Stromal Cells and Derived Extracellular Vesicles as Post-Myocardial Infarction Therapeutic Toolkit: An Experienced View

Abstract

Gelatina de Wharton; Enginyeria de teixits cardíacs; Infart de miocardi

Gelatina de Wharton; Ingeniería de tejidos cardíacos; Infarto de miocardio

Wharton’s jelly; Cardiac tissue engineering; Myocardial infarction

Outstanding progress has been achieved in developing therapeutic options for reasonably alleviating symptoms and prolonging the lifespan of patients suffering from myocardial infarction (MI). Current treatments, however, only partially address the functional recovery of post-infarcted myocardium, which is in fact the major goal for effective primary care. In this context, we largely investigated novel cell and TE tissue engineering therapeutic approaches for cardiac repair, particularly using multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) and natural extracellular matrices, from pre-clinical studies to clinical application. A further step in this field is offered by MSC-derived extracellular vesicles (EV), which are naturally released nanosized lipid bilayer-delimited particles with a key role in cell-to-cell communication. Herein, in this review, we further describe and discuss the rationale, outcomes and challenges of our evidence-based therapy approaches using Wharton’s jelly MSC and derived EV in post-MI management.

This work has been developed in the context of ADVANCE(CAT) with the support of ACCIÓ (Catalonia Trade & Investment; Generalitat de Catalunya) and the European Community under the Catalonian ERDF operational program (European Regional Development Fund) 2014–2020, Generalitat de Catalunya (Departament de Salut) PERIS Acció Instrumental de Programes de Recerca Orientats (SLT002/16/00234), Spanish Society of Cardiology, Catalan Society of Cardiology, Fundació bancària La Caixa, CIBER Cardiovascular (CB16/11/00403) and by the Spanish Cell Therapy Network (TerCel, expedient numbers: RD16/0011/0006 & RD16/0011/0028). Projects PI19/01788, PI17/01487, PIC18/00014, ICI19/00039, PI18/00256, PI18/01227, ICI20/00135 are funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III and co-funded by European Union (ERDF/ESF)—A way to build Europe. Projects SAF2017-84324-C2-1-R and PID2019-110137RB-I00 are funded the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness-MICINN. Our laboratories are awarded by the Generalitat de Catalunya’s AGAUR as Consolidated Research Groups (references 2017-SGR-483, 2017-SGR-719 and 2019PROD00122), and by the Catalan Heath Institute.