Invasive intramyocardial injection of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) limits the number of repeat injections and has limited efficacy in treating ischemic heart failure. Here, researchers investigated whether and how overexpression of colony-stimulating factor 2 receptor β subunit (CSF2RB) regulates cardiac homing of MSCs and their cardioprotective effects against ischemic heart failure. Adult mice underwent myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (MI/R) or sham surgery. CSF2 protein expression and secretion were significantly increased in ischemic hearts one day to two weeks after MI/R. Mouse adipose tissue-derived MSCs (ADSCs) were infected with either an adenovirus carrying CSF2RB or a control adenovirus. Intravenously injected ADSCs overexpressing CSF2RB exhibited significantly enhanced cardiac homing compared to ADSCs infected with the control adenovirus. Histological analysis revealed that overexpression of CSF2RB significantly enhanced the pro-angiogenic, anti-apoptotic, and anti-fibrotic effects mediated by ADSCs. More importantly, ADSCs overexpressing CSF2RB significantly improved left ventricular ejection fraction and cardiac systolic/diastolic function in MI/R mice. In vitro experiments showed that CSF2RB overexpression enhanced ADSC migration and reduced hypoxia/reoxygenation-induced apoptosis. STAT5 phosphorylation is a key mechanism by which CSF2RB promotes ADSC migration and inhibits ADSC apoptosis. RNA sequencing and causal analysis showed that CSF2RB overexpression increased the expression of the ubiquitin ligase RNF4. Immunoprecipitation and immunostaining experiments demonstrated that RNF4 binds to phosphorylated STAT5. RNF4 knockdown reduced STAT5 phosphorylation and the anti-apoptotic and pro-migratory effects of ADSCs overexpressing CSF2RB.
Here, researchers investigated the cellular mechanisms by which CSF2RB-overexpressing ADSCs enhance cardiac homing and repair. Because stem cell homing largely depends on their migratory capacity, the researchers first compared the migratory capacity of CSF2RB-overexpressing ADSCs with that of control cells. Wound healing assays and Matrigel-coated Transwell assays demonstrated that CSF2RB-overexpressing ADSCs exhibited significantly improved migratory capacity compared with control cells (Figure 1A-B). Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have previously been reported to play a crucial role in MSC migration. The researchers found that CSF2RB overexpression significantly increased the protein expression of MMP-2, MMP-3, and MMP-9 in ADSCs (Figure 1C). After homing to the infarcted heart, stem cells encounter a harsh ischemic microenvironment, which impairs their retention. Therefore, they evaluated the anti-apoptotic potential of CSF2RB-overexpressing ADSCs. Immunoblotting revealed that after H/R treatment, caspase-3 protein expression was significantly reduced in CSF2RB-overexpressing ADSCs compared with control cells (Figure 1D). After H/R treatment, the number of TUNEL+ nuclei in CSF2RB-overexpressing ADSCs was significantly lower than that in control cells (Figure 1E).
Figure 1. CSF2RB overexpression increased the migration and antiapoptotic effect of ADSCs. (Qi T, et al., 2023)