Mesenchymal stem cells for heart repair

Abstract

With the aging of the population, ischemic heart disease including myocardial infarction, ischemic cardiomyopathy, and consequent heart failure became a leading cause of morbidity and mortality despite substantial advances in risk factor prevention, medicaments, and revascularization. Cell therapy is currently being investigated as a potential low-cost and low-risk alternative. Favorable results from preclinical studies have brought cardiac cell therapy into clinical trials. It has been demonstrated that mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based therapy is promising for tissue engineering and therapeutic applications due to their pluripotent differentiation and relative ease of obtain. This review focused on the utilization of MSC in cardiac repair and current status in clinical application.