title: Umbilical cord blood for cardiovascular cell therapy: from promise to fact.
abstract: Endothelial recovery and cell replacement are therapeutic challenges for cardiovascular medicine. Initially employed in the treatment of blood malignancies due to its high concentration of hematological precursors, umbilical cord blood (UCB) is now a non-controversial and accepted source of both hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic progenitors for a variety of emerging cell therapies in clinical trials. Here, we review the current therapeutic potential of UCB, focusing in recent evidence demonstrating the ability of UCB-derived mesenchymal stem cells to differentiate into the endothelial lineage and to develop new vasculature in vivo.
authors.affiliation: ICREC Research Group, Health Sciences Research Institute Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Santiago
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Roura
authors.affiliation: ICREC Research Group, Health Sciences Research Institute Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Josep-Maria
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Pujal
authors.affiliation: ICREC Research Group, Health Sciences Research Institute Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP), Barcelona, Spain.|Cardiology Service, University Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, Barcelona, Spain.|Department of Medicine, Autonomous University Barcelona, Spain.|Biomedical Research Networking Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN), Spain.
authors.forename: Antoni
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bayes-Genis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D036101:Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000166:cytology; D006801:Humans; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology; D012038:Regeneration