title: Stem cells--clinical application and perspectives.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Augmentation of myocardial performance in experimental models of therapeutic infarction and heart failure has been achieved by transplantation of exogenous cells into damaged myocardium. The quest for suitable donor cells has prompted research into the use of both embryonic stem cells and adult somatic stem cells.
  Recently, there has been a growing body of evidence that multipotent somatic stem cells in adult bone marrow exhibit tremendous functional plasticity and can reprogram in a new environmental tissue niche to give rise to cell lineages specific for new organ site. This phenomenon has made huge impact on myocardial biology, while multipotent adult bone marrow hematopoeitic stem cells and mesechymal stem cells can repopulate infarcted rodent myocardium and differentiate into both cardiomyocytes and new blood vessels.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data, coupled with the identification of a putative primitive cardiac stem cell population in the adult human heart, may open the way for novel therapeutic modalities for enhancing myocardial performance and treating heart failure.
authors.affiliation: Internal Clinic B, Department of Cardiology, University of Duesseldorf, Germany. Brehmic@aol.com
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brehm
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zeus
authors.forename: Bodo Eckehard
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Strauer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary; D000818:Animals; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells / Q000166:cytology; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D019070:Cell Lineage; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003331:Coronary Vessels; D004285:Dogs; D025401:Echocardiography, Stress; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000166:cytology; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000601:surgery; D019650:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Mobilization; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D039902:Multipotent Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery* / Q000628:therapy; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000166:cytology; D039904:Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012038:Regeneration / Q000502:physiology; D012106:Research; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D013997:Time Factors; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous