Strategies for cardiovascular repair: role of stem cells in 2012 and beyond
Creator
Penn M S; Silver K H
Publisher
Minerva Cardioangiologica
Date
2012
2012-10
Description
Stem cell based repair of the heart has captured the mind and imagination of cardiovascular specialists and the lay public. Significant progress has been made at the bench defining the mechanisms of action. This work has gone on further to demonstrate that there is an endogenous stem cell based repair process that attempts to repair the myocardium in response to acute ischemic injury. At the same time investigators at both the bench and in clinical populations have investigated the effects of distinct adult stem cell populations in the peri-infarct period as well as patients with chronic heart failure. In this review we attempt to lay a framework to review how cardiovascular regenerative medicine has progressed to date, summarize what we have learned to date, and discuss how the field may evolve in the future.