Human Myocardial Grafts: do They Meet All the Criteria for True Heart regeneration?

Abstract

Ischemic heart disease has long been the number one cause of death in the USA and has recently become the number one cause of death worldwide [1]. While remarkable progress in understanding the pathophysiology of the disease has been made in the last several decades, there are clearly many challenges ahead. Current therapy using various surgical, catheter-based and pharmacological approaches can reduce symptoms or delay disease progress; however, these do not cure the underlying damage to the heart. One of the key issues to overcome is bringing back functional cardiomyocytes (CMs), of which approximately a billion are lost during a typical myocardial infarction. While cardiac transplantation is an effective therapy, patients suffer from lifelong immunosuppression and it will never be available to all the patients in need because of the limited number of donors. Since the heart contains little intrinsic regenerative capacity, finding other sources for new heart muscle is critical. Stem cell therapy is the emerging attempt to regenerate cardiac tissue that could lead to the functional recovery of the whole heart [2]. This editorial focuses on current research on stem cell-derived CMs and their application as transplantable myocardial grafts.