Figure 2.

Negligible long-term engraftment of human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiovascular progenitor cells in immunosuppressed non-human primates. Cynomolgus monkeys were subjected to myocardial infarction by permanent ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery. Thirty minutes after ligation, animals were treated with cyclosporine or multiple-drug regimen (cyclosporine in combination with Simulect and methylprednisolone) and intramyocardially injected with 1 × 10⁷ EGFP labelled human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiovascular progenitor cells. Engraftment of transplanted cells was evaluated with immunofluorescence in heart tissue collected at 3, 28, and 140 days after cell injection (A). At 3 days, the engraftment rate was nil with cyclosporine and 0.4% with MDR (B). By 140 days, cells became undetectable (C). Bar = 50 μm. *P < 0.05. Reprinted with permission from Zhu et al.⁴⁷