title: Heart regeneration.
abstract: Regenerating an injured heart holds great promise for millions of patients suffering from heart diseases. Since the human heart has very limited regenerative capacity, this is a challenging task. Numerous strategies aiming to improve heart function have been developed. In this review we focus on approaches intending to replace damaged heart muscle by new cardiomyocytes. Different strategies for the production of cardiomyocytes from human embryonic stem cells or human induced pluripotent stem cells, by direct reprogramming and induction of cardiomyocyte proliferation are discussed regarding their therapeutic potential and respective advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore, different methods for the transplantation of pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes are described and their clinical perspectives are discussed. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Cardiomyocyte Biology: Integration of Developmental and Environmental Cues in the Heart edited by Marcus Schaub and Hughes Abriel.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology, Cardiovascular Research Center, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany; DZHK (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research), partner site Hamburg/Kiel/Lübeck, Germany.
authors.forename: Kaja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Breckwoldt
authors.affiliation: Center for Cardiovascular Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98109, USA.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Weinberger
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology, Cardiovascular Research Center, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany; DZHK (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research), partner site Hamburg/Kiel/Lübeck, Germany. Electronic address: t.eschenhagen@uke.de.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Eschenhagen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology*; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000637:transplantation*; D010641:Phenotype; D020127:Recovery of Function; D012038:Regeneration; D044968:Regenerative Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Cardiac regeneration; Cardiac reprogramming; Cardiomyocyte proliferation; Human PSC-based cellular therapies; Tissue engineering; Transplantation