Fig. 1

Improvement of left ventricular (LV) function after cell transplantation. a LV M-mode echocardiogram image at baseline, heart failure (HF), and 2, 4, and 8 weeks after cell transplantation. b Serial echocardiographic measurements of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in myocardial infarction (MI) group(n = 8), human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte (hESC-CM) group (n = 8) or human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived mesenchymal stem cell (hiPSC-MSC) group (n = 8) at different time points. LVEF was significantly increased in the hESC-CM and hiPSC-MSC groups at 4 and 8 weeks after transplantation than during HF, but not in the MI group. Moreover, LVEF was significantly higher in the hiPSC-MSC group than in the MI group (^#P < 0.01 vs. MI using repeated measures two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc test) and hESC-CM group (*P < 0.05 vs. hESC-CM using repeated measures two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc test) at 8 weeks after transplantation. c–e Maximal left ventricular positive pressure derivative (+dP/dt) and end systolic pressure-volume relationship (ESPVR) was measured by invasive hemodynamic assessment of pressure-volume (PV) loops. ESPVR was measured during occlusion of the inferior vena cava (IVC) by balloon inflation (blue arrow). At 8 weeks, both left ventricular +dP/dt and ESPVR in the hiPSC-MSC group were significantly increased compared with during HF and were significantly higher than the MI group (*P < 0.05 vs. MI using repeated measures two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc test)