Yin, Yee Leong and Wai, Hoe Ng and Georgina M., Ellison Hughes and Jun, Jie Tan
(2017)
Cardiac Stem Cells for Myocardial Regeneration: They Are Not Alone.
Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine, 4 (47).
pp. 1-13.
ISSN 2297-055X
Abstract
Heart failure is the number one killer worldwide with ~50% of patients dying within
5 years of prognosis. The discovery of stem cells, which are capable of repairing the
damaged portion of the heart, has created a field of cardiac regenerative medicine,
which explores various types of stem cells, either autologous or endogenous, in the
hope of finding the “holy grail” stem cell candidate to slow down and reverse the disease
progression. However, there are many challenges that need to be overcome in
the search of such a cell candidate. The ideal cells have to survive the harsh infarcted
environment, retain their phenotype upon administration, and engraft and be activated
to initiate repair and regeneration in vivo. Early bench and bedside experiments mostly
focused on bone marrow-derived cells; however, heart regeneration requires multiple
coordinations and interactions between various cell types and the extracellular matrix to
form new cardiomyocytes and vasculature. There is an observed trend that when more
than one cell is coadministered and cotransplanted into infarcted animal models the
degree of regeneration is enhanced, when compared to single-cell administration. This
review focuses on stem cell candidates, which have also been tested in human trials,
and summarizes findings that explore the interactions between various stem cells in
heart regenerative therapy.
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