Progenitor and embryonic stem cell transplantation for myocardial angiogenesis and functional restoration

Abstract

The discovery of the main risk factors, the development of potent new drugs and sophisticated procedures and interventions, have not yielded the expected ‘victory’ over coronary heart disease. In fact, as the number of heart attacks decreases, the number of patients with refractory myocardial ischaemia and congestive heart failure is rapidly on the rise. Hence, novel therapeutic approaches are urgently required. The concept of regenerative medicine using the body's own stem cells and growth factors to repair tissues is gradually coming closer to reality. Work regarding stem cells is ever increasing and is paving the way for medical repairs, including mending a damaged heart. This review aims to track recent developments in myocardial cell transplantation techniques. Every somatic or bodily cell in a human being possesses the full genetic code that makes us who we are. As we grow, however, our somatic cells become specialized or differentiated and they shut down the other parts of the DNA except for the ones relevant for their particular function. Hence, cells ‘forget’ how to become or function as another part of the body. The somatic cells that make up the heart will do only that; they will not become or function as liver cells or brain cells, even though they possess the DNA to do so. Stem cells are the most undifferentiated human cells and so possess the ability to renew and develop into different cell types and become more differentiated.1 Some stem cells are totipotent and have the ability to develop into a complete human organism; others are pluripotent and can develop into multiple cell types of an organism. There are 200 trillion cells in the human body, 200 unique cell types derive from an estimated 20–30 stem cells.2,3 Stem cells function continuously; for instance, in bone marrow they replace …