Isolation, labelling and autotransplantation of left auricle myocytes in adult rabbit

    ZHANG Hao, CAI Zhenª²Jie, YU Shiª²Qiang, ZHAO Biª²Jun,ZHANG Jinª²Bao

    Center of Cardiovascular Surgery, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710033, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To develop a reliable method for isolation and fluorescent labeling of adult rabbit left auricle myocytes and to investigate the survival of grafted autologous left auricle myocytes. METHODS: Twenty adult New Zealand rabbits were randomly assigned to transplant group and control group (n=10). The left auricle of rabbit was ligated and harvested and the auricular cells were isolated and labeled with DAPI ex vivo. Either a cell suspension (transplant group) or culture medium (control group) was injected into the normal left ventricular anterior wall. The rabbits were sacrificed after 4 weeks and specimens were harvested and observed by histologic methods. RESULTS: Most of the isolated cells were observed rodª²shaped. The morphologic feature of these cells corresponded to that of auricle cardiomyocytes and the cell activity was good. The ¡°cell island¡± could be found in myocardial infarction (MI) area of transplant group, and the nuclei with blue fluorescence could be found in transplant group, but not in control group, which confirmed the survival of implanted cells and the reliability of DAPI labeling. Vascular density in transplant group was better than that in control group (P=0.02). CONCLUSION: Enzyme digestion and DAPI labeling are reliable methods for the isolation and labeling of left auricle myocytes in adult rabbits. Isolated and DAPI labeled auricle myocytes can survive after autografted into normal ventricular anterior wall and may improve peripheral vascular proliferation. ......