Regenerative Medicine and its Potential in Cardiovascular Disease

Abstract

Regenerative medicine, using stem cell therapies, has shown great promise in developing advances in medicine to long standing disease. Gene editing technologies such as the novel CRISPR-Cas9 (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats with CRISPR associated protein 9) system, has enabled gene manipulation that is precise and efficient, with applicability to regenerative medicine. Patients with diseases thought to be incurable may attain the most benefit from regenerative medicine, particularly with cell-based therapies. Induced pluripotent stem cells due to their versatility and flexible differentiation have proven that they are the most viable stem cell option in the creation of safe and effective regenerative treatment. To create induced pluripotent stem cells, somatic cells first need to code for an induced pluripotent stem cell in the body using varying levels of the following transcription factors: cMyc, Klf4, Sox2, and Oct4. Once in an induced state, these pluripotent stem cells need to be further specialized and differentiated into a specific cell. To code for this differentiation into a cardiomyocyte, additional transcriptional factors are required, including: Gata4, Mef2c, and Tbx5. Through the alteration of these seven different transcriptional factor levels, an ideal induced pluripotent stem cell and eventually the ideal cardiomyocyte can be created. With the development of functional cardiomyocytes, micro arteries can be created which can aid in redirecting blood flow away from blockages caused by diseases such as myocardial infarctions. This can greatly reduce the fatality of myocardial infarctions and prevent relapse.