title: 'Shovel-Ready' applications of stem cell advances for pediatric heart disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The past decade has seen remarkable advances in the field of stem cell biology. Many new technologies and applications are passing the translational phase and likely will soon be relevant for the clinical pediatric cardiologist.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This review will focus on two advances in basic science that are now translating into clinical trials. The first advance is the recognition, characterization, and recent therapeutic application of resident cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs). Early results of adult trials and scattered case reports in pediatric patients support expanding CPC-based trials for end-stage heart failure in pediatric patients. The relative abundance of CPCs in the neonate and young child offers greater potential benefits in heart failure treatment than has been realized to date. The second advance is the technology of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which reprograms differentiated somatic cells to an undifferentiated embryonic-like state. When iPSCs are differentiated into cardiomyocytes, they model a patient's specific disease, test pharmaceuticals, and potentially provide an autologous source for cell-based therapy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The therapeutic recruitment and/or replacement of CPCs has potential for enhancing cardiac repair and regeneration in children with heart failure. Use of iPSCs to model heart disease holds great potential to gain new insights into diagnosis, pathophysiology, and disease-specific management for genetic-based cardiovascular diseases that are prevalent in pediatric patients.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, Department of Pediatrics, Seattle Children's Hospital/University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98105, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Files
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Boucek
mesh_terms: D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D022062:Electrophysiologic Techniques, Cardiac; D005260:Female; D048091:Guided Tissue Regeneration; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D057026:Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000637:transplantation*; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000637:transplantation*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000209:etiology; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000639:trends