Stem and progenitor cell-based therapy in ischaemic heart disease: promise, uncertainties, and challenges.

ABSTRACT: In the absence of effective endogenous repair mechanisms after cardiac injury, cell-based therapies have rapidly emerged as a potential novel therapeutic approach in ischaemic heart disease. After the initial characterization of putative endothelial progenitor cells and their potential to promote cardiac neovascularization and to attenuate ischaemic injury, a decade of intense research has examined several novel approaches to promote cardiac repair in adult life. A variety of adult stem and progenitor cells from different sources have been examined for their potential to promote cardiac repair and regeneration. Although early, small-scale clinical studies underscored the potential effects of cell-based therapy largely by using bone marrow (BM)-derived cells, subsequent randomized-controlle

SUBMITTER: Tongers J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3094549 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature