Figure 7: Schematic diagram of the mechanism of cardiac function enhancement of BM-MSCs for the treatment of ischemic heart disease.

PI3K/Akt/mTOR has been considered as a central regulatory pathway of protein translation in the regulation of cell proliferation, growth, differentiation, migration and survival. During hormonal stimulation, the mTOR can be activated through phosphorylation by upstream pathways, such as PI3K and Akt. After BM-MSCs transplantation, MSCs secrete cytokines to activate PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, and as downstream effective molecule, mTOR specifically phosphorylates ribosomal protein p70s6k, and then p70s6k promote myocardial glucose metabolism, protein synthesis and then to improve cardiac function.