Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy for Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease: Helping People Sooner or Later

Despite advances in clinical management, cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in America. While cardiomyocytes retain limited plasticity following maturation, the heart is grossly unable to recover from structural damage. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy, through its promise of repair and regeneration of cardiac tissue, represents an exciting avenue of treatment for a range of cardiovascular diseases. MSCs are relatively immunoprivileged, lacking both major histocompatibility II and T-cell co-stimulatory signal expression, and possess the unique ability to home into sites of myocardial damage when delivered systemically. Additionally, they have been shown to provide therapeutic benefit via several distinct mechanisms, the most important of which appears to be the abundant secretion of paracrine factors that promote local regeneration. In light of this, several groups have sought to precondition MSCs, using various molecular and genetic means, in order to enhance viability and growt...