Stem Cell Engineering for Cardiac Tissue Regeneration

摘要

Heart failure due to myocardial infarction is a leading cause of death. The loss of viable myocytes during myocardial ischemia, which are typically replaced by fibro-blastic scar tissue without contractile function, minimizes the capacity of the heart to pump blood and maintain the necessary cardiac output. Cell transplantation has raised considerable hope as a potential remedy for this situation by replenishing irreversibly damaged myocardium with intrinsic progenitor cells, including autolo-gous and induced pluripotent stem cells. However, cell delivery systems are not yet sufficiently efficient for optimal clinical application: substantial cell loss occurs in the hostile microenvironment of the transplantation site. Motivated by the modest results reported in clinical trials and experimental settings, enthusiasm has developed for further investigations to improve the cell transplantation system using genetic [1] or tissue engineering [2] technologies.