Fig. 5.

Transplantation of cardiac telocytes decreased infarction size and improved myocardial function following MI. Cardiac telocytes (10⁶) were simultaneously injected into the infarcted zone and the border zone. The infarction size was analysed 14 days after LAD ligation. (I-A) The infarction size (%LV) of the cardiac-telocyte-injected group was significantly lower than that of the c-kit-negative cell-injected and PBS-injected control groups (P < 0.05). However, the infarction size (%LV) of the c-kit-negative cell-injected control group was similar to the infarction size in the PBS control group (P > 0.05). *P < 0.05; cardiac-telocyte-injected group versus c-kit-negative cell-injected control group or cardiac-telocyte-injected group versus PBS-injected control group. (I-B) Masson's trichrome staining revealed that in the cardiac-telocyte-injected hearts, some cardiac myocytes survived in the infarcted zone; however, the zones were primarily composed of fibrotic tissue in the c-kit-negative cell-injected and PBS-injected control groups. (II) Functional assay of MI via echocardiography with a 2D-M-model demonstrated that the ejection fraction (EF) of the CT-treated group was significantly higher than that of the c-kit-negative cell-injected and the PBS-injected control groups (P < 0.05). However, it was still significantly lower than that in the sham and normal control groups (P < 0.05). *P < 0.05; the cardiac telocyte-MI group versus all other groups (A). The end-systolic diameter and the end-diastolic diameter of the cardiac-telocyte-injected group were lower than those of the c-kit-negative cell-injected and PBS-injected control groups (P < 0.05 versus the PBS control group), but higher than that of the sham and the normal control groups (P < 0.05; B and C). *P < 0.05; the cardiac telocyte-MI group versus PBS control group, sham group and normal control group. n = 5 for the cardiac-telocyte-injected group; n = 9 for the c-kit-negative cell-injected group; n = 8 for the PBS control group; n = 5 for the sham group; n = 5 for the normal control group. CTs: cardiac telocytes. Nor: normal control.