Stem Cell Therapy of Ischemic Heart Disease

Ischemic heart disease (IHD) accelerates death of cardiomyocytes and leads to the onset of cardiac failure. Due to the application of stem cells, there exists a potential for the regeneration of a damaged myocardium. Here we present a brief review of the modern data on the application of various types of stem cells for the IHD therapy. We consider different types of stem cells, which are most preferable for the clinical application, including mesenchymal stem cells, cardiac stem cells, embryonic stem cells, iPS cells and others. In particular, we discuss their advantages and strategies which can be applied in order to boost their regenerative potential, as well as optimization of their delivery. Besides, our review refers to the contemporary achievements in the field of tissue engineering of heart, using both polymer scaffolds and scaffold-free constructs. We also discuss the most prominent known clinical trials on stem cell therapy of ischemic heart disease.