Stem Cells and Their Potential in Cell-Based Cardiac Therapies

Stem cells are potential agents for the treatment of myocardial infarcts among other heart diseases. Over the past decade, the scientific community has extensively used a wide variety of cells and examined their capacity to both regenerate the infarcted myocardium and improve functionally the diseased hearts. Some of the cells used include skeletal myoblasts, bone marrow-derived cells, adult cardiac resident stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, and both mouse and human embryonic stem cells (Nat Biotechnol 2005;23:845-856). The reported cardiogenic capacity of the utilitized stem cells is assayed both in vitro through the use of differentiation paradigms and in vivo through transplantation into a variety of animal models of cardiac disease. The purpose of this review article is to summarize recent stem cell applications in cell-based cardiac therapies and their outcomes.