Cardiac Progenitor Cells and their Therapeutic Application for Cardiac Repair

Abstract

Heart disease is the principal cause of death in humans. Stem cell-based therapy for heart regeneration has long been seen as a potential application since the heart lacks adequate intrinsic regenerative potential. In the cardiovascular field, clinical trials have already been carried out by implantation of both bone marrow-derived stem cells and cardiac resident progenitor cells derived from the adult heart tissue into the injured myocardium to restore the functionality of the heart after damage. However, before a robust stem and progenitor cell-based therapy for cardiovascular diseases can be applied in the clinical setting, more research is necessary to generate sufficient quantities of functional cardiomyocytes from stem cells and to understand behavior of cardiomyocytes upon transplantation. A comprehensive understanding of the developmental processes involved in cardiogenesis might support further investigations in more efficient cell-based regeneration therapies. This review discusses the molecular aspects of cardiogenesis during early development and links the insights with the in vitro generation of cardiac progenitor cells as well as functional cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, we discuss the advantages of cardiac progenitor cells and cardiomyocytes derived from pluripotent stem cells, cardiac resident stem cells in regenerative applications to cope with the damaged heart.