Circumferential strain recovery after human cardiomyocyte transplantation in minipigs using a novel frequency-based method for myocardial tagging quantification

Description

Anna V Naumova and colleagues test in 2026 a therapy and a measuring tool in minipigs recovering from heart attacks. The therapy is human stem-cell heart muscle cells; the tool is a way to read regional heart strain from tagged magnetic resonance images. The analysis uses frequency patterns in the tag grid rather than commercial tracking software. Infarcted front-wall segments were followed before injury, before treatment, and eight weeks after cell or vehicle delivery.

Strain in cell-treated hearts recovered from about minus one percent after infarction to minus four percent by eight weeks, where more negative means stronger shortening. Vehicle hearts instead worsened, drifting to slightly positive values. Overall pumping fraction did not improve, underlining that gains were local. The new calculation agreed closely with tag tracking and feature tracking reference methods. Regional recovery without global change is what remuscularisation trials need to detect, the authors argue.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13311266