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Abstract
Cardiac fibrosis is a major factor in the progression of heart failure, thus its prevention is considered as a critical goal in relieving possible complications. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are considered as promising source of stem cells therapy due to its capability of clonal differentiation in addition to their ability to escape detection by the host immune system upon transplantation and the relative ease of expansion in culture. The aim of this study is to investigate whether MSC transplantation can inhibit the progression of myocardial fibrosis in rat model or not compared to colchicine (COL) treatment and whether the duration of treatment with MSCs or COL affect the progression of fibrosis. Cardiac fibrosis was induced in fifty six rats by isoproterenol hydrochloride (ISO) injection. They were subdivided into COLtreated group and MSC-treated group at three different time intervals (after 1,2 or 3 weeks). Rat cardiac functions were assessed by heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), creatine phosphokinase (CPK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Levels of matrix metalloproteinase II (MMPII) and collagen I were also assessed and cardiac tissues were histopathologically examined. Histopathological, biochemical and PCR results showed a significant improvement in the MSC-treated groups compared with the positive control and the COL-treated groups