Intravenous injection of extracellular vesicles to treat chronic myocardial ischemia.

Background: Mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) appear to be a very exciting treatment option for heart disease. Here, we used a swine model of chronic myocardial ischemia to evaluate the efficacy of a less-invasive method of injection of EVs via a peripheral intravenous route.

Methods: Sixteen Yorkshire swine underwent placement of an ameroid constrictor on the left circumflex (LCx) artery at age 11 weeks to induce chronic myocardial ischemia.

Functional studies of the Ciona intestinalis myogenic regulatory factor reveal conserved features of chordate myogenesis.

Ci-MRF is the sole myogenic regulatory factor (MRF) of the ascidian Ciona intestinalis, an invertebrate chordate. In order to investigate its properties we developed a simple in vivo assay based on misexpressing Ci-MRF in the notochord of Ciona embryos. We used this assay to examine the roles of three structural motifs that are conserved among MRFs: an alanine-threonine (Ala-Thr) dipeptide of the basic domain that is known in vertebrates as the myogenic code, a cysteine/histidine-rich (C/H) domain found just N-terminal to the basic domain, and a carboxy-terminal amphipathic α-helix referred to as Helix III.