Intracoronary Transplantation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells with Overexpressed Integrin-Linked Kinase Improves Cardiac Function in Porcine Myocardial Infarction

The effect of mesenchymal stem cell (MSCs)-based therapy on treating acute myocardial infarction (MI) is limited due to poor engraftment and limited regenerative potential. Here we engineered MSCs with integrin-linked kinase (ILK), a pleiotropic protein critically regulating cell survival, proliferation, differentiation and angiogenesis. We firstly combined ferumoxytol with poly-L-lysine (PLL) and found this combination promisingly enabled MRI...