Adult cardiac stem cells--where do we go from here?

Overview

A potential treatment for cardiovascular disease involves the transplantation of a patient's bone marrow stem cells into the heart of that same patient. In order to maximize the potential benefits to select patient populations, the continued clinical development of this technology will require a comprehensive understanding of the role(s) of the transplanted cells in the repair of damaged heart tissue as well as an understanding of which types of cardiac injury can be repaired by this approach. The widespread application of cardiovascular stem cell therapies, however, will likely be based on pharmacological approaches to enhance the capacity of endogenous bone marrow stem cells to provide for the replacement of cardiac muscle and vascular cells after myocardial injury.