Signaling pathways regulate cardiovascular lineage commitment of hPSCs

Remarkable progress has been made in the direct differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into the major sources of cell types found in the heart. The understanding of cardiovascular development in vivo can provide the guidelines and help us to facilitate the process of generation of cells. In this chapter, we review the state of methods in generating cardiovascular cells from hPSCs according to our understanding of heart development. We also stress the important role of developmental biology during the differentiation from hPSCs. We then highlight the application in disease modeling, drug screening, and cell therapy based on cell transplantation. With the advances of their application, the promise of hPSCs-related products will provide new treatments for degenerative diseases of the heart in the future.