Medical imaging for cardiac regeneration using resident cardiac stem cells

摘要

Myocardial infarction accelerates cardiomyocyte loss as cardiomyocyte apoptosis and necrosis are caused by a lack of nutrients and oxygen supply brought about by ischemic conditions. Although commonly used methods, such as drug treatment, cardiovascular intervention and heart transplantation, can reduce mortality in cardiac disease patients, these therapies cannot regenerate the lost cardiomyocytes. Diverse research has been carried out to overcome limitations in the regeneration of damaged cardiomyocytes. Stem cell-based therapy has been considered a novel therapeutic strategy for cardiomyocyte regeneration since the early 2000s. Stem cells from various sources, including embryonic stem cells (ESCs), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and adult stem cells (ASCs) have shown therapeutic potential in the regeneration of cardiomyocytes.Until now, stem cell therapy for cardiac regeneration has been actively explored using a variety of different cell types. Cardiac stem cells (CSCs) could be considered as an obvious cell source for regeneration of damaged cardiomyocytes. These cells pre-exist in the adult heart, coexpress early cardiac transcription factors and differentiate toward cardiac lineages, which together indicate an ability to improve cardiac regeneration potential compared with other stem cells [4]. A number of experiments have demonstrated that CSCs may regenerate the myocardium by differentiating into cardiomyocytes and vascular lineages (e.g., endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells)