Cardiomyocytes from Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are self-renewing and pluripotent cells that can differentiate into functional cardiomyocytes in vitro. Significant progress has been made over the past decade in improving the differentiation and enrichment of hESC-derived cardiomyocytes. These cells allow investigations into human cardiac biology, and have great potential for applications in cell therapy and drug discovery. However, several technical hurdles must be overcome before their routine use as therapeutic agents or as cellular models for drug screening. This is an exciting area of stem cell research that will have a major impact on cardiovascular medicine. Keywords: Blastocyst; Gastrulation; Pluripotent; Reprogramming; Myocardial infarction; QT interval; Teratoma; Torsades de Pointes; Xenogeneic