Establishment of miniature swine myocardial infarction model by percutaneous balloon occlusion method

AIM: To study the feasibility of establishing miniature swine myocardial infarction(MI)model by percutaneous balloon occlusion method, and to investigate the effect of autologous mesenchymal stem cells(MSCs)transplantation on treatment of acute MI. METHODS: Twenty Tibet miniatrue swine were included in the study and randomly divided into 2 groups. After anaesthesia, 2.5 mm×15.0 mm percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty balloon was positioned in the middle and distal-LAD by percutaneous femoral puncture in the right inguinal in the animals. The LAD flow was occluded for 90 min. The electrocardiogram(ECG), echocardiography(UCG), single photon emission computed tomography(SPECT), magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)and histopathology were examined. MSCs suspensions were injected to the infarct myocardium through infarct-related coronary artery by OTW balloon in MSCs transplantation group, while the control swine were injected with normal saline. Left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF), end diastolic volume(EDV), end systolic volume(ESV)and fractional shortening(FS)were observed. RESULTS: The coronary angiography was successfully performed in all 20 swine. Ten swine survived during the process of balloon occlusion, 10 dead and the success rate reached 50%. After MI, LVEF and FS significantly decreased, while EDV and ESV significantly increased as compared to the values of pre-modeling(P<0.05). Eight weeks after transplantation, the parameters observed above improved in MSCs group as compared to those of pre-transplantation(P<0.05,P<0.01). However, no significant difference of the parameters in saline group between pre-transplantation and after-transplantation was observed. Compared to saline group, LVEF and FS significantly increased in MSCs group(P<0.05,P<0.01)with significant decreases in EDV and ESV(P<0.05,P<0.01). CONCLUSION: The miniature swine MI model is successfully established by percutaneous balloon occlusion method. Stem cells transplantation prevents the occurrence of ventricular fibrillation and obviously improves the myocardial functions.