ENDOTHELIAL-CELL SEEDING OF LATISSIMUS-DORSI MUSCLE POUCHES

The transformation of skeletal muscle tissue into a fatigue-resistant, autologous blood pump is being explored as an attempt to aid the fail ing heart. One of the options is to generate a pouch underneath the la tissimus dorsi muscle, to connect an electrically conditioned muscle p ouch to the circulation, and to use it as an autologous, contractile c ardiac assist device. However, the potential of thrombus formation on the blood contacting surface, which is composed of fibrous material, m ight thwart the clinical usefulness of such skeletal muscle ventricles . We hypothesized that the thrombogenicity of these pouches could be r educed by lining their luminal surfaces with autologous endothelial ce lls. As a first step, we examined the feasibility of this approach und er resting, nonbeating conditions. Using a multistage operative proced ure, we isolated microvascular endothelial cells from canine adipose t issue and, after culturing these cells in the laboratory, seeded the a utologous cells into preformed latissimus dorsi pouches in six mongrel dogs. Four to six weeks later the dogs were sacrificed and the ultras tructure of the pouches was examined by light and electron microscopy and by fluorescence techniques. The micrographs confirmed that the sur faces of seeded pouches, but not of the untreated controls, are lined with a continuous monolayer of functional endothelial cells, as assess ed by the presence of several endothelial cell-specific markers. Curre nt studies are under way to assess the thrombogenicity of these endoth elialized skeletal muscle pouches. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.